Are you abreast of kiting related legislative changes?
Were you aware that the key legislation governing kite flying in the UK changed yesterday, though not the section relating kite flying, and for the second time this year? Were you even aware that there was legislation governing kite flying in the UK?
I will freely admit that I only know about the The Air Navigation (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2007 S.I. 2007/3467 which came into force yesterday (19th December 2007) by accident. As part of my job, I monitor the Feed for UK Acts, and the Feed for UK Statutory Instruments from the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) for changes in legislation relating to food contact polythene packaging, and by chance in the tens of posts which appear daily in these feeds the phrase ‘Air Navigation’ caught my eye.
With ignorance of the law being no defence, one wonders how the individual is meant to keep abreast of new legislation and amendments to existing legislation, after all the The Air Navigation (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2007 is the 3476th statutory instrument to be passed by parliament this year, and it is certainly not the last one. In business there are representative bodies who are consulted on new legislation, and keep their members up to date on changes and interpretation. As regards kite flying the closest we have to UK wide representative bodies are the ‘British Kite Flying Association’ (BKFA) who seem more concerned with the legalities of child protection than that of actual kite flying, since whilst they have child protection policies, they list nothing on their website with regard to kite flying related legislation, and ‘The Kite Society of Great Britain’ who list legislation on their website, but which is both several years out of date and has been revoked.
For those of you who have an interest, the two key pieces of legalisation governing kite flying in the UK are:
- The Rules of the Air Regulations 2007 S.I. 2007/734
- As amended by:
- The Air Navigation Order 2005 S.I. 2005/1970
- As Amended by: