Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussion he has had with representatives of industry on the development of (a) changes to the Air Navigation Order 2016 and (b) proposals for the draft Drones Bill in regulating the use of drones over the last two years.

The Department for Transport has had discussions with a range of industry stakeholders. In particular, these include the Drones Industry Action Group, managed by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which meets quarterly and facilitates discussion on key issues between the Government and the UK drones industry.

Recent changes to the Air Navigation Order were developed in response to the Government’s consultation on drones, which ran from December 2016 to March 2017. The current consultation will inform the forthcoming draft Drones Bill.