 The law governing aviation in the UK is defined by the Civil Aviation Act 1982 , which is updated periodically with amendments , the latest being the Civil Aviation Act 2006 . The government department responsible for legislating changes in national policy and long term strategy relating to aviation is the Department for Transport ( DfT ) . At the operational level the independently run Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA ) regulates economic , safety , and consumer protection aspects , as well as airspace policy , although these responsibilities are being increasingly ceded to the European Aviation Safety Agency ( EASA ) . International aspects of air transport are regulated by agreements made within the International Civil Aviation Organisation ( ICAO ) as established by the Chicago Convention , whilst most new legislation is now made at the European level through the European Civil Aviation Conference ( ECAC ) . As a consequence , other than in airport development , there are few aspects of the air transport industry in which the government can act in isolation . 
