Reviewing decisions made by the CAA

When a decision has been made by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) affecting you that is eligible for a review under this process you can request an internal review that will be undertaken by an appropriate and independent CAA employee. This means that your case will be reviewed by a CAA employee that has had no previous involvement in the decision-making process. This review will be a procedural review only. The CAA high-level internal review procedure and related information is available to view. However, if the procedural review finds that the correct process was not followed a full merits review will then be undertaken, if relevant, which could take longer.

It is important that you consider whether this option is your best course of action. You may decide to review the decision under Regulation 6 of the Civil Aviation Authority Regulations 1991 instead. However, entering the internal review process first will not affect your rights to request a review under Regulation 6. Further information can be found in regard to the Regulation 6 review process.

You will need to submit a request for an internal review. Please check your eligibility which has been detailed previously, before submitting your request. You may be asked to provide supporting documents once your request has been considered.

Further review

If, following our internal review, it is found that The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) did not follow the correct process in reaching a decision affecting you, a full merits review will be undertaken where appropriate. If the further review finds that an incorrect decision has been made, we will:

• Accept responsibility
• Explain what went wrong and why
• Put things right by making any necessary changes required

If, having followed the internal stage of the review process, you are not satisfied, you can request a referral to the Independent Review Panel (IRP) who are independent of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). In this case you must submit a request for a referral to the Independent Review Panel (IRP).

Not all decisions that the CAA take are eligible to be considered by the IRP. You must have completed the internal review stage before initiating this stage of the process. You also must not have requested a review under Regulation 6 of the Civil Aviation Authority Regulations 1991.

The IRP may look at your case if they decide, based on the information provided in the request form, that there are reasonable and appropriate grounds to suggest the CAA did not follow procedure in making a decision that impacts you. They cannot look at whether the CAA used the right judgement to make that decision. It does not cost you anything to have your case assessed by the IRP.

The IRP will need to see all documents relating to your case and we aim to send this to them within 7 working days of you asking us to pass your case to them. The IRP will aim to review your case within 28 days of receiving all relevant information and they will tell you if they expect it to take longer.

When the IRP has completed their review, they will contact you with their findings and any recommendations they consider appropriate to both you and the CAA.

Eligibility for a review by the Independent Review Panel

Decisions that are in scope for an internal review which has been explained previously, may also be reviewed by the IRP following the outcome of the internal review, if they meet certain eligibility criteria.

For review of cases relating to medical fitness decisions, you must have exhausted the existing medical secondary and final appeals process before requesting a review by the Independent Review Panel.

The IRP is overseen by the Department for Transport (DfT) and is independent of the CAA. To request a case review by the IRP, you must demonstrate where you think the CAA did not meet expectations of following the correct process and procedure. The IRP may choose not to consider your case based on the information you provided.

Eligible decisions must be those previously mentioned and be taken after the 2 May 2022.

The following will not be in scope to be reviewed by the IRP:

• A complaint about a service or member of staff. Instead, this should follow the CAA complaints
• Judgement on level and/or amount of education or retraining relating to airspace infringements
• An unregulated person or organisation
• Decisions made about outcomes of service complaints, consumer complaints or complaints about third parties
• Decisions relating to requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Information Regulations or the Data Protection Act.
• A decision that is currently being considered under Regulation 6 of the Civil Aviation Authority Regulations 1991.
• A matter that is under investigation or subject to enforcement action by the CAA.

The terms of reference can be found on the DfT website.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Regulations set out a further avenue of case review should you remain dissatisfied with a decision. There are differences between the Independent Review Panel (IRP) and Regulation 6 processes that can help you make an informed decision about which is most appropriate for your circumstances.

When you make a request for a review to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), your personal information will be used by us, and where appropriate by the Department for Transport (DfT) and their appointed Independent Review Panel (IRP), for the purposes of considering your request for a review, producing anonymised statistical information and seeking to improve procedures through lessons learnt.

Further information about how each DfT body or the DfT look after personal information can be found in the DfT Department’s information charter.

The CAA’s General Privacy Notice informs you how the CAA generally uses and looks after your personal information. This includes what you tell us about yourself and what we learn during our relationship with you.

If, following an Independent Review Panel (IRP) review, you do not agree with its outcome, you can consider two routes. The first is to request a review under Regulation 6 of the Civil Aviation Authority Regulations 1991. Alternatively, you can contact your Member of Parliament (MP) and ask for your case to be referred to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman(PHSO).

The PHSO can carry out independent investigations where there is a case to suggest that injustice has been caused by mismanagement on the part of UK government departments and some public bodies, including the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

You can find out who your MP is and write to them at:
House of Commons
Westminster
London SW1A 0AA

If a person becomes unreasonably persistent or concerning, we may choose not to deal with subsequent request and/or complaints in accordance with this policy.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) defines unreasonably persistent complainants as: “those who, because of the frequency or nature of their contact with the authority, hinder the authority’s consideration of their or other people’s complaints.”