Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-04-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made by the cross-government working group on remotely piloted aircraft systems.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Cross Government Working Group has been discussing its draft Terms of Reference (extract copied below) and its membership. The focus of its work so far has been to gather information from the relevant departments to identify areas of common interest requiring collaboration.

RPAS Cross Government Working Group Vision and Activities

Vision : To provide a consistent government message on RPAS issues.

Objectives:

• Inform RPAS-related Departmental policies and publish a UK Cross Government vision / strategy for UAS.
• To identify Cross Government synergies and opportunities for efficiencies.
• To identify and address barriers to a successful UK industry base, to support the Government’s growth agenda.

Approach

• Focus for the co-ordination of all UK Government RPAS related activities.
• Developing a better knowledge and a shared understanding of Departmental priorities, activities, ambitions & concerns.
• Help industry understand Government needs and vision.
• Identify opportunities.
• Identify key questions.
• Community of users [identification of user requirements].
• UK PoC for RPAS.

Issues to Address

• Identifying the extent to which the UK can support safe and secure RPAS operations in the UK, including options for the certification of RPAS, pilot licensing, and associated systems.
• Identifying the key characteristics of RPAS infrastructure, including the potential radio spectrum for RPAS operations in the UK.
• Seek to identify common Cross Government user requirements to understand future concepts for shared assets / system procurement and maintenance.
• Determining how the UK might best position itself to take advantage of RPAS industry and technology.

Engagement

Understand the potential benefits of RPAS to Government.

Inform and be informed by active industry associations e.g.

• Aeronautical and Aerospace and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network Autonomous Systems National technical committee.
• Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group.
• Through identification of best practice and successful projects.
• UK industry