1. Legal Update
DRONES
David R. Goodman OBE, Barrister
For P. G. Wodehouse fans, Drones is Bertie Wooster’s club, but nowadays it is a
generic term for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Those who watched the
television series Secrets from the Sky will have seen a drone providing aerial pictures
of Stonehenge and other historical places, providing a new dimension for exploring
those sites. Television news companies used them to provide footage of last year’s
floods.
But drones can be put to other uses, including surveillance or voyeurism, and there
are concerns about invasion of privacy and air safety, given the proliferation and easy
availability of these devices; and there is the risk of injury or more from loss of
control of a drone. An All-Party Parliamentary Group commissioned legal advice
from a leading barrister, who said that retaining or using data gathered by drones used
for surveillance is probably unlawful – even though two police forces are currently
authorised to use them. So what are the laws about the use of drones?
UAVs are governed by the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) Air Navigation
Regulations. The over-riding requirement is that an operator must avoid causing or
permitting a drone to endanger any person or property by being flown recklessly or
negligently, and it must not be flown in controlled airspace.
A drone must not go beyond visual line of sight (usually taken to be 500 metres
horizontally and 400 feet vertically – note the mix of measuring systems!) without
CAA approval. It must not be flown within 150 metres of any congested area or
outdoor assembly of more than 1,000 people, or within 50 metres of any individual
except during take-off and landing, or within 50 metres of any vehicle, structure or
property that is not under the operator’s control, again unless CAA approval has been
granted. A UAV must not be flown at night without CAA permission. If the person is
receiving any kind of payment for using a drone, he must register it with the CAA and
seek a permit for aerial work.
If a drone has a camera attached or built-in the regulations are even tighter; for
example, it must not be flown within 30 metres of an individual, and the operator
must comply with the Data Protection Act or seek exemption. A television or film set,
however, would probably be said to be ‘under the operator’s control’, so that CAA
permission would not be needed to fly closer than 30 metres of people or a building
being used for filming. And permission is not needed for a practice or demonstration
flight, although the overriding duty of safety will apply.
Drones over 20kg must not be flown in civilian airspace except over the National
Aeronautical Centre and over a military base on Boscombe Down, by permit.
But policing breaches of the regulations or permissions granted by the CAA is very
difficult. It is possible that some footage of the floods shown on television news was
obtained through flying too low, and many people buying drones as presents or for
their own use may not even know there are regulations governing their use. If a drone
hovers outside a bedroom window, taking photographs, it will be long gone before the

2. police could arrive, and it is unlikely anyway that the householder will know whose
drone it is. There has been one conviction, however, of a man who flew one close to a
nuclear facility and nearly crashed into a bridge. He was fined £800, with £3,500
costs.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act also applies, but was not designed for
this purpose, so there is pressure for a full enquiry into the use of drones, and
measures to control and restrict their use for surveillance; however the Home Office,
which is understood to have used drones for surveillance, believes that the existing
legislation provides sufficient safeguards. The European Commission is considering a
new privacy and data protection standard for civil drones, but with an 80% increase in
the issue of drone permits this year, probably a few thousand private users, and some
companies considering using them to make deliveries, the issue may be more about
policing than new regulations, although requiring drones to carry easily-visible
identification marks might assist policing.
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