Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons why owners of high performance light aircraft based in the UK choose to register such aircraft on the US aircraft register under a Trust arrangement, rather than the UK aircraft register.

The operation of non-UK registered aircraft in the UK is permitted under regulations made by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The government commissioned an independent review into the UK approach to general aviation (GA) safety. This report is currently out for consultation, and can be viewed on the CAA’s website. While it looks at GA safety in the round, it found that traditionally the two main reasons why people may register aircraft on the US register are the ability to use a US Federal Aviation Administration Pilot Instrument Rating, and a sometimes-different approach to maintenance requirements.

These reasons are becoming less significant with the development of the new European Basic Instrument Rating to provide greater and easier access to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flying and the introduction of a new Part M Light maintenance regime for private non-commercial aircraft.

Full findings on the use of N-Registered aircraft in the UK GA sector are available at Appendix C-2 5.0 of the aforementioned review.