UK SORA Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM)
The CAA has decided that the changes to UK SORA Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) due to come into force on 1 October 2026 will now not be applied. This means that the current published AMC & GM for UAS operations in the Specific Category will remain in force.
Who might this impact?
This decision will not impact:
- UAS operators flying in the Open Category
- PDRA-01 authorisation holders
- Existing Specific Category authorisation holders (based on either UK SORA or OSC)
- Operators with live applications in the UK SORA Application Service
This may impact:
- Operators currently preparing a UK SORA application who were using the updated AMC & GM and planned to apply after 1 October 2026
Why have we taken this decision?
Following the publication of ORS9 Decision No.60 in July 2026, the CAA has received further feedback on some of the changes made to AMC and GM to UK SORA. At the same time, ongoing work on the next UK SORA update has identified substantial opportunities to make improvements across the entirety of UK SORA, including aspects amended in Decision No. 60.
Importantly, industry has also highlighted that the number of AMC & GM changes being consulted on and rolled out iteratively is proving challenging and difficult to follow. We therefore intend to pause these updates and combine them into a single AMC & GM update next year. At the same time, we will incorporate further industry feedback received on Decision No. 60 to ensure that the next release is as enabling for industry as possible.
We appreciate that this course of action may create uncertainty and present challenges for some operators. However, we have carefully considered the options available to us at this point in time and believe that this course of action will reduce the number of AMC & GM changes for industry and provide further opportunities to improve guidance across UK SORA in the medium to longer term.
How we will support operators
To help minimise the impact of this decision, we are committed to making support available to affected operators through our UK SORA application advisory service. To arrange an appointment to discuss your specific circumstances, please contact [email protected].
We apologise for any disruption that this change may cause. However, we believe this course of action will minimise unnecessary burden associated with policy changes, and provide an opportunity to work closely with industry to refine planned changes while making substantial simplifications to the UK SORA package.
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