Aviation autonomy

Examining the law around autonomous flight to support the safe development of rapidly advancing technology.

Background (Back to top)

The Law Commission has been asked by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Department for Transport (DfT) to review the law around autonomous flight. This is to support the safe development of rapidly advancing technology.

The three-year review is partly funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) through the Future Flight Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and the Economic and Social Research Council. It will examine the existing legal framework to identify the challenges and opportunities linked to the introduction of highly automated systems into the aviation sector.

Project (Back to top)

Automation is already heavily used in aviation today. Recent breakthroughs have seen the development of new, innovative autonomous and highly automated systems and vehicles. These include drones, as well as advanced air mobility vehicles, such as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, which can provide short journeys for a small number of people.

Increased automation has the potential to deliver substantial benefits to the entire aviation system, UK industry and the public. To realise these benefits, the UK’s legislative and regulatory framework needs to be sufficiently agile to facilitate innovation while being robust enough to maintain the sector’s high safety standards.

The project reviews existing legislation to identify any legislative blocks, gaps or uncertainties. The Law Commission will consult with key stakeholders in the aviation and innovation sectors, before proposing a series of law reforms that will ensure the UK is ready to take advantage of oncoming advances in automation.

Consultation

In February 2024, we published our first consultation paper, which looked at the law relating to drones and VTOLs. We considered the roles and responsibilities of remote pilots and operators of these uncrewed aircraft. This was followed by a second consultation paper, published in April 2025, which considered the provision of air traffic management and air navigation services (ATM/ANS) to uncrewed aircraft.

Watch the video below of Professor Alison Young, Commissioner for Public Law and the Law in Wales, discussing the Law Commission’s aviation autonomy consultation.

Next steps (Back to top)

The consultation period for our second consultation closed on 18 July 2025. We are now analysing responses to both consultations before making our final recommendations to Government. We are aiming to publish our report in early 2026.