# The Unmanned Aircraft (Offences and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025, Regulation 1: Citation, commencement, extent and interpretation


(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Unmanned Aircraft (Offences and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025.
(2) These Regulations come into force on—
(a) 1st January 2026, or
(b) if later, the day after the day on which they are made.
(3) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
(4) In these Regulations—
“LUC” refers to a light UAS operator certificate, which means a certificate issued to a UAS operator by the Civil Aviation Authority under point UAS.LUC.050 of Part C of the Annex to the UK Implementing Regulation;
“maximum take-off mass” means the maximum mass, including payload and fuel, as defined by the manufacturer or the builder, at which an unmanned aircraft can be operated;
“remote pilot” means an individual responsible for safely conducting the flight of an unmanned aircraft by operating its flight controls, either manually or, when the unmanned aircraft flies automatically, by monitoring its course and remaining able to intervene and change the course at any time;
“UAS” refers to an unmanned aircraft system, and means an unmanned aircraft and the equipment to control it remotely;
“UAS operator” means any person operating or intending to operate one or more UAS.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348275797/regulation/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-unmanned-aircraft-offences-and-consequential-amendments-regulations-2025/regulation-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.