# UK Drone Rules 2026 \| What to Ask Before You Book an Operator

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Last modified: 2026-11-06T23:38:14+00:00
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UK drone rules changed on 1 January 2026. Here is what to ask before you book an operator. The biggest shake up of UK drone regulation since the rules were written came into force at the start of this year, and almost nobody outside the industry noticed. That is fine for most people. It is less fine if you are the marketing manager signing off a drone shoot over your own site, because a fair amount of the sales patter you will hear from operators is now out of date. Here is what actually changed, in plain English, and the questions worth asking. The registration threshold dropped Before this year, the line was 250 grams. Below it, no test, no registration. That line is now 100 grams. Anyone flying a drone of 100 grams or more outdoors needs a Flyer ID, which means passing the CAA's online theory test. If you own the aircraft and it weighs between 100 and 250 grams and has a camera on it, you also need an Operator ID, which is the registration that has to be displayed on the aircraft itself. In practice this pulled a lot of small camera drones into scope that were previously outside it. If someone turns up to your site with a very small drone and tells you it does not need registering because it is under 250 grams, that has not been true since January. There is now a UK class marking system The old EU class marks have been replaced by a UK system running from UK0 up to UK6. The class mark tells you what the aircraft has been built to do and therefore where it is allowed to fly. EU C class marked drones are still recognised as equivalent until the end of 2027. Drones with no class mark at all, meaning most kit bought before this year, remain perfectly legal but are governed by their weight rather than by a class, and are described as legacy aircraft. Alongside that, the operating categories were simplified into three: A1 for flights over people, A2 for flights near people, and A3 for flights well away from people. UK Drone Rules 2026 . The bit that matters most on a commercial site A1 permits flying over people. It does not permit flying over crowds. Here's a dedicated blog on that very subject. That distinction is the single most important thing for anyone booking aerial coverage of a busy site, an open day or an event, and it is not negotiable in the open category regardless of how good the pilot is or how small the aircraft is. A2 is the middle ground, and here the class mark earns its keep. A UK2 marked aircraft flown by a pilot holding an A2 Certificate of Competency can come in to 30 metres horizontally from uninvolved people, or 5 metres in low speed mode. A legacy aircraft under 2 kilograms with the same certificate is typically held at 50 metres. Same pilot, same qualification, very different separation distance, purely because of what the aircraft is certified to do. The practical consequence for you is counter intuitive. The drone that can legally get closest to your people and your building is often the smallest one on the shelf, not the biggest. Choosing the aircraft for the site rather than for the spec sheet is most of the job. A few other UK Drone Rules. Changes worth knowing about Remote ID has started. UK class marked aircraft now broadcast their operator details in flight. That widens in January 2028 to cover legacy aircraft over 100 grams with cameras, which will eventually make almost every drone in UK airspace traceable while it is flying. Night flying now requires a green flashing light on most aircraft. Useful to know if you want dusk or evening coverage of a lit building, because it is entirely doable and the light on the aircraft is not a problem in the footage. On the training side, the GVC has moved to legacy status and the newer RPC framework is taking over as the route for specific category operations. If an operator quotes you a qualification you have not heard of, that is probably why. The questions to ask UK Drone Rules need tpo be followed. It's mandatory. If you are commissioning drone work, this is the short list. Any operator worth booking wil

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