Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 as retained (and amended in UK domestic law) under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 determines the rules for the certification of design and production organisations. Part-21 subpart G of this regulation concerns the production of Part 21 aircraft or the associated components.
Pre-requisites
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Organisations should have their principal place of business in the UK.
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Organisations with their principal place of business located outside the UK, should apply for a UK Third Country Approval.
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Organisations needing to change a Registered Company or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Number will require a new initial approval as it cannot be classed as a change to an existing approval. The Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information and Procedures Leaflet C-30 (CAP562) provides further information.
How much does it cost?
Please refer to the Official Record Series 5 CAA Scheme of Charges for further information.
If the number of hours taken by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to carry out its investigations in relation to the application exceeds the cost shown above, the applicant must pay an excess hourly charge. The CAA shall determine the excess hourly charge by taking the total number of excess hours taken by the CAA to complete the required investigations, in relation to the application and multiplying that number of hours by an hourly charge. The balance for the excess hourly charge (total hourly charge less initial charge already paid) is payable by the applicant to the CAA and will be invoiced to the applicant.
Payments can be made by credit or debit card or bank transfer or by a cheque made payable to the Civil Aviation Authority. Further details are available for making a payment.
When using bank transfer, you will need to identify what the payment is for by including your approval reference and receiving department.
How long will it take for the application to be processed?
- Correctly completed applications will be processed, acknowledged and passed to the Regional Office for investigation within 10 working days.
- Approval certificates will be processed and dispatched within 20 working days following receipt of a recommendation from a CAA Regional Office.
An automated email receipt for your online application will be returned.
Same day services
Same day, special delivery and other customised services are available at an additional cost. This service is on request, which should be made at the time of initial application. Documents are worked to a same day turnaround from receipt of customer request by 11:00 to completion of the processing of the application by 16:30 on the same working day. The customer will be able to collect the documents by 16:30 on the same day or the documents shall be sent by Royal Mail special delivery, where this is included in the service.
The CAA has developed the same day, special delivery and other customised services charges to include additional products and areas.
How long is it valid for?
- Approvals remain valid unless cancelled, suspended or revoked.
- Once granted an approval requires a recommendation for continuation every 24 months from the date of issue, this is raised by the CAA Surveyor following a satisfactory audit programme.
What else do I need to know?
- Initial Airworthiness - UK Regulation (EU) No. 748/2012
- CAA Approvals, Non-Transferability - Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information and Procedures - Leaflet C-30 (CAP 562)
- CAA Approvals, Controls of Production Suppliers and Sub contractors - Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information and Procedures - Leaflet C-180 (CAP 562)
- UK Regulations
- Part 21 Subpart G Production Organisation Exposition Guidance
What do I need to include with my application?
- An online application form submitted by an Authorised Representative of the Company.
- A minimum of one CAA Form 4 for key personnel, specifically a Quality Manager.
- Additional Form 4's may be requested by your allocated CAA surveyor.
- Please ensure that the CAA policy on fitness of character is fully understood before submission of an application.
- A draft copy of the POA Compliance Checklist Part 21 POA Compliance Checklist.
- A draft copy of the POE Compliance Checklist PART 21 POE (Exposition) Compliance Checklist.
- A completed UK Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 Compliance Checklist.
- A completed SRG1760 form (Principal Place of Business Key Facts form) if your organisation is trading as a registered company.
- A demonstration of regulatory need, for example DOA/POA arrangement document, UK TSO application.
- A completed organisation internal Audit Report (including objective evidence) to confirm the organisation is complaint and ready for the CAA audit.
- A copy of the company Certificate of Incorporation if your organisation is trading as a registered company.
- Payment of the relevant fee (this can be made online).
How do I apply?
- Complete and submit the online application form.
What happens next?
- An automated email receipt following submission of the online application form.
- An email to confirm your provisional Part 21 approval number - normally within 10 working days.
- A Technical Support Officer will make an initial assessment of your application and POE and will contact you with any queries.
- The Resource Scheduling Team will contact you to arrange for a surveyor to carry out the on-site audit.
- Any questions regarding the scheduling of your on-site visit can be directed to the Resource Scheduling Team at ResourceScheduling@caa.co.uk.
- A surveyor will conduct an audit against the requirements and raise an audit report detailing any findings.
- The surveyor will review the nominated personnel, interviews for key personnel may be carried out.
- If findings have been raised the organisation should address the findings and notify the surveyor of the actions taken.
- Once the audit findings relating to the initial application have been closed and when the surveyor is able to, a recommendation for the issue of the approval will be forwarded to the Shared Services Approvals team.
- When the Approvals team receive the recommendation the approval certificates will be raised and sent to your organisation within 20 working days.
- On receipt of the certificates, your organisation can begin undertaking and releasing work once you receive the certificates.
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