RPC opinion: impact of Civil Aviation Bill
Regulatory Policy Committee's opinion of the quality of the evidence and analysis in the options assessments from the Department for Transport.
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The Civil Aviation Bill introduces 6 targeted measures:
- Aviation consumer rights – transport vires and reform power
- Airspace modernisation – UK Airspace Design Service
- Aviation safety – reintroducing powers to create criminal sanctions
- Aviation safety – regulatory reform
- Airport slots regulation
- Additional administrative Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) consumer powers
The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) gave a ‘green’ rating to each of the options assessments for the 6 measures. This means that we considered them to be ‘fit for purpose’ based on our scrutiny of the evidence and analysis supporting the case for why regulation is necessary.
The RPC’s opinion refers to the evidence and analysis presented in the assessments, not the policy itself.
The Department for Transport has informed the RPC that following issue of our opinions, the government published the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill final stage impact assessment dated 14 May 2026 with the following changes to ensure consistency across the bill:
- for measures 2 and 4 - the analysis has been updated to reflect revised wage data and to align the price and present value base years to 2026
- for measure 3 - the Small and Micro Business Assessment has been updated so that market share is estimated using passenger volumes, rather than aircraft kilometres
Under the Better Regulation Framework, the Department for Transport is not required to submit this final stage impact assessment to the RPC for further independent scrutiny.