Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has had discussions on disruption by drones at airports with (a) pilots, (b) other aviation professionals (c) the Ministry of Defence and (d) governments of other European countries that have experienced such disruption; and what steps her Department plans to take to counter such risks to commercial aviation.

UK aviation operates in the private sector. It is therefore the responsibility of industry to ensure there are appropriate contingency plans in place to minimise potential disruption.

The Department for Transport, Home Office and Ministry of Defence engage regularly with the aviation sector to gain assurances of their security plans, including in response to drone incursions at UK airports.

The Department for Transport is going further by mandating the use of Remote Identification (RID) for drones allowing them to be tracked and identified. RID will protect the airspace, its users and the public from unlawful and unsafe drones operating without adequate permissions, including around UK airports.