If you own or operate an aircraft you will know that it must have a radio licence, issued by the CAA on behalf of OFCOM, and renewed every year. The annual charge for aircraft under 3200kg is £20 for a fixed radio installation and £15 for a portable radio. Now this is not a great cost but it represents bureaucracy in its purest form - you are paying for a certificate to prove you have paid.
Recently the format of the radio licence has changed – it is now non-expiring and valid until revoked but if you do not pay your annual fee the CAA will revoke it. So now you are paying the CAA not to revoke your licence. You may think that paying a regulator not to do something is a step beyond even pure bureaucracy. In other areas, this sort of thing would be described as a protection racket.
OFCOM who are responsible for all radio licensing, have made ships radio licences non-expiring and free if downloaded from the internet. So if you own a super tanker, plying the seas of the World with millions of tones of oil in the hold, you pay no radio license fee.
We have proposed that the CAA should follow this lead but this has not been welcomed. As yet no action.
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