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UK Civil Aviation Regulations

These are published by the CAA on our UK Regulations pages. EU Regulations and EASA Access Guides published by EASA no longer apply in the UK. Our website and publications are being reviewed to update all references. Any references to EU law and EASA Access guides should be disregarded and where applicable the equivalent UK versions referred to instead.



The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) oversees Safety Management Systems (SMSs) in line with the UK Basic Regulation ((EU) Reg 2018/1139. SMSs are how industry manages its safety risks. More information is available for Safety Management Systems – Guidance to Organisations. For other approvals sitting outside this system, the CAA will consider whether to apply SMS to these approvals through the Air Navigation Order (ANO). There is also further guidance on SMS implementation available.

We expect the UK aviation industry to comply with aviation regulations and the CAA will apply the Regulatory enforcement policy to ensure that compliance is met. We also expect the UK aviation industry to consider both the UK State Safety Programme and the respective safety plans (for UK industry this would be the CAA Safety Plan) as part of their activities, especially when implementing SMS and in determining their safety objectives and safety performance indicators.

The UK supports a collaborative approach between the aviation regulators working closely with industry on safety improvement activities and the sharing of safety information. This is achieved through regulator participation in industry forums and running workshops and conferences for industry.

The Military Regulatory Publication (MRP) Regulatory Article (RA) 1200 - Defence Air Safety Management requires all organisations directly or indirectly involved in defence aviation to set up and maintain an effective Air Safety Management System (ASMS). Guidance is provided in the Manual of Air Safety. Independent assurance of the effectiveness of each organisation's ASMS is conducted by the MAA.

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