Do you need a licence to fly a drone in the UK?
There is no such thing as a drone licence in the UK. What exists instead is a registration scheme everyone joins, plus qualifications you add depending on how close to people — and how heavy — you want to fly. Nobody will ever ask to see your “drone licence”, because the document doesn’t exist. They might reasonably ask to see four other things.
Here’s each one, what it’s for, and roughly what it costs.
1. Operator ID — the registration
If you’re responsible for a drone that weighs 250g or more, or any camera drone that isn’t a toy, you must register with the CAA as an operator. You need to be 18 or over. It costs £11.79 a year at the time of writing, and the ID must be displayed on every drone you operate — one registration covers your whole fleet.
This is the closest thing to “papers” a drone has, and it’s the first thing to check if you’re ever hiring someone: a commercial pilot without an Operator ID has failed at step zero.
2. Flyer ID — the test
Anyone flying a drone of 250g or more must hold a Flyer ID. It’s free: an online multiple-choice test on the CAA’s website, drawn from the Drone Code — height limits, distances, airspace. You can sit it from your sofa and retake it if you fail.
Sub-250g camera drones (the DJI Mini class) don’t legally require a Flyer ID, only an Operator ID. Take the test anyway; the rules bind you whether or not you’ve read them.
For most hobby flying in open country, that’s the lot: two IDs, one of them free, no “licence” anywhere in sight. The legal basis is the Air Navigation Order 2016 and the UK version of Regulation (EU) 2019/947, with the CAA’s working detail in CAP 722.
3. A2 CofC — the closer-to-people theory ticket
The A2 Certificate of Competency is a theory qualification taken through a CAA-recognised assessment entity, typically £100–£250 including the training. What it buys you is proximity: with an eligible drone, an A2 CofC holder can fly down to 30 metres from uninvolved people (5 metres in low-speed mode) instead of being banished to open countryside.
It’s the sensible upgrade for anyone flying a mid-weight drone anywhere near the built environment — and the minimum you’d expect from someone photographing a house from above a street.
4. GVC — the professional standard
The General VLOS Certificate is the full qualification: theory exam, operations manual, practical flight assessment, usually £400–£700 through a recognised assessment entity. On its own it proves competence; paired with an Operational Authorisation from the CAA (an annual application, with its own fee), it moves the holder into the Specific category — flights the Open category can’t cover, like working close to buildings and people in towns and cities.
This pairing is what serious survey work runs on. A pilot inspecting a terraced roof, monitoring a construction site, or flying anywhere in dense residential streets is almost always operating under an Operational Authorisation, because the Open category distances simply don’t fit between houses.
”But I’m flying commercially — don’t I need more?”
This is the most persistent myth in UK drone flying, and it’s been wrong since December 2020. The old commercial permission (the PfCO) was abolished; the rules now care about the risk of a flight, not whether anyone paid for it. Flying a 2kg drone over a busy street needs the same authorisation whether you’re charging £300 or doing a favour.
One genuine commercial difference survives: paid operations require insurance compliant with the UK-retained Regulation (EC) 785/2004 — in practice, public liability cover written for drone operations. Hobbyists are exempt; anyone invoicing isn’t.
So what does a hirer actually check?
Flip everything above into a checklist and you have the entire vetting process for hiring a drone pilot:
- Operator ID — registered with the CAA, ID on the airframe.
- Qualification — A2 CofC at minimum; GVC plus Operational Authorisation for anything near buildings or people.
- Insurance — public liability cover that complies with the retained Regulation 785/2004 rules, in date.
That checklist is, not coincidentally, what we verify before a pilot can quote on this platform — checked by a human, and dated. The name on the door is a joke; the checks aren’t.
If you’d rather skip the homework and just fly your own drone at your own roof, read Can I fly a drone to inspect my own roof? first — the distances are less forgiving than you’d hope. And for the full rulebook in plain English, the height limits, categories and no-fly zones are all in Drone laws UK 2026: the rules, minus the waffle.