The UK will leave the European aviation safety regulator after the Brexit transition period, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed.
He said UK membership of the European Aviation Safety Agency - responsible for certifying the airworthiness of planes - would end on 31 December.
He said the UK's Civil Aviation Authority would "bring expertise home".
But the owner of British Airways said the CAA lacked world-class knowledge and could not be ready in time.
Mr Shapps told Aviation Week much of the Cologne-based European Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) expertise came from the UK and that a lot of its leaders were British.
He said the agency's powers would revert to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) "and the expertise will need to come home to do that, but we'll do it in a gradual way".
'Best option'
The trade body ADS - which represents more than 1,100 UK businesses in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors - told the BBC the decision could potentially mean products and designs would need to be certified more than once.
For example, EASA is responsible for certifying commercial aircraft for service across the EU and some non-EU European countries.
When the UK ends its membership of EASA, it may need to certify aircraft separately itself.
ADS has estimated that it would take 10 years and cost up to £40m annually to create a UK safety authority with all the expertise of EASA, against a current contribution to the European agency of £1m to £4m a year.
It claimed a new regulatory regime could put jobs in the sector at risk.
"We have been clear that continued participation in EASA is the best option to maintain the competitiveness of our £36bn aerospace industry and our access to global export markets," the trade body said.
It added that the UK's influence within EASA "contributes to raising standards in global aviation" and helped make the industry "attractive to the investment it needs".
British Airways owner IAG said it was "disappointed" with the decision and said the Civil Aviation Authority "does not have the expertise required to operate as a world class safety and technical regulator".
IAG said: "The CAA will require fundamental restructuring from top to bottom which will take time. There is no way that it can be done by 31 December."
Airlines UK, which represents carriers including EasyJet and Ryanair, said its members supported continued membership of EASA - but not at the risk of the UK becoming a "dumb follower of EU rules".
It urged the government to begin negotiations on an air safety agreement with the EU so it could be ready by the end of the year.
The Department for Transport said: "Being a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency is not compatible with the UK having genuine economic and political independence.
"We will maintain world-leading safety standards for industry, with the Civil Aviation Authority taking over these responsibilities, and will continue to work with colleagues in the EU to establish a new regulatory relationship."
The UK will leave the European aviation safety regulator after the Brexit transition period, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed.
He said UK membership of the European Aviation Safety Agency - responsible for certifying the airworthiness of planes - would end on 31 December.
He said the UK's Civil Aviation Authority would "bring expertise home".
But the owner of British Airways said the CAA lacked world-class knowledge and could not be ready in time.
Mr Shapps told Aviation Week much of the Cologne-based European Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) expertise came from the UK and that a lot of its leaders were British.
He said the agency's powers would revert to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) "and the expertise will need to come home to do that, but we'll do it in a gradual way".
'Best option'
The trade body ADS - which represents more than 1,100 UK businesses in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors - told the BBC the decision could potentially mean products and designs would need to be certified more than once.
For example, EASA is responsible for certifying commercial aircraft for service across the EU and some non-EU European countries.
When the UK ends its membership of EASA, it may need to certify aircraft separately itself.
ADS has estimated that it would take 10 years and cost up to £40m annually to create a UK safety authority with all the expertise of EASA, against a current contribution to the European agency of £1m to £4m a year.
It claimed a new regulatory regime could put jobs in the sector at risk.
"We have been clear that continued participation in EASA is the best option to maintain the competitiveness of our £36bn aerospace industry and our access to global export markets," the trade body said.
It added that the UK's influence within EASA "contributes to raising standards in global aviation" and helped make the industry "attractive to the investment it needs".
British Airways owner IAG said it was "disappointed" with the decision and said the Civil Aviation Authority "does not have the expertise required to operate as a world class safety and technical regulator".
IAG said: "The CAA will require fundamental restructuring from top to bottom which will take time. There is no way that it can be done by 31 December."
Airlines UK, which represents carriers including EasyJet and Ryanair, said its members supported continued membership of EASA - but not at the risk of the UK becoming a "dumb follower of EU rules".
It urged the government to begin negotiations on an air safety agreement with the EU so it could be ready by the end of the year.
The Department for Transport said: "Being a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency is not compatible with the UK having genuine economic and political independence.
"We will maintain world-leading safety standards for industry, with the Civil Aviation Authority taking over these responsibilities, and will continue to work with colleagues in the EU to establish a new regulatory relationship."
The UK will leave the European aviation safety regulator after the Brexit transition period, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed.
He said UK membership of the European Aviation Safety Agency - responsible for certifying the airworthiness of planes - would end on 31 December.
He said the UK's Civil Aviation Authority would "bring expertise home".
But the owner of British Airways said the CAA lacked world-class knowledge and could not be ready in time.
Mr Shapps told Aviation Week much of the Cologne-based European Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) expertise came from the UK and that a lot of its leaders were British.
He said the agency's powers would revert to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) "and the expertise will need to come home to do that, but we'll do it in a gradual way".
'Best option'
The trade body ADS - which represents more than 1,100 UK businesses in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors - told the BBC the decision could potentially mean products and designs would need to be certified more than once.
For example, EASA is responsible for certifying commercial aircraft for service across the EU and some non-EU European countries.
When the UK ends its membership of EASA, it may need to certify aircraft separately itself.
ADS has estimated that it would take 10 years and cost up to £40m annually to create a UK safety authority with all the expertise of EASA, against a current contribution to the European agency of £1m to £4m a year.
It claimed a new regulatory regime could put jobs in the sector at risk.
"We have been clear that continued participation in EASA is the best option to maintain the competitiveness of our £36bn aerospace industry and our access to global export markets," the trade body said.
It added that the UK's influence within EASA "contributes to raising standards in global aviation" and helped make the industry "attractive to the investment it needs".
British Airways owner IAG said it was "disappointed" with the decision and said the Civil Aviation Authority "does not have the expertise required to operate as a world class safety and technical regulator".
IAG said: "The CAA will require fundamental restructuring from top to bottom which will take time. There is no way that it can be done by 31 December."
Airlines UK, which represents carriers including EasyJet and Ryanair, said its members supported continued membership of EASA - but not at the risk of the UK becoming a "dumb follower of EU rules".
It urged the government to begin negotiations on an air safety agreement with the EU so it could be ready by the end of the year.
The Department for Transport said: "Being a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency is not compatible with the UK having genuine economic and political independence.
"We will maintain world-leading safety standards for industry, with the Civil Aviation Authority taking over these responsibilities, and will continue to work with colleagues in the EU to establish a new regulatory relationship."
"21,460 people have been tested in the UK, of which 21,254 were confirmed negative and 206 were confirmed as positive," the UK Department of Health and Social Care said, adding that two coronavirus patients have died so far.
The British government's confirmation came shortly after an update from the Scottish health authorities, who announced that they have identified five new cases of coronavirus over the last 24 hours, bringing the total in the region to 16.
LONDON — She is accused of flinging a folder at an aide, hitting the staffer in the head. She reportedly told another offending underling to “get out of my face” and castigated her staff as “useless,” adding an f-bomb for good measure.
The allegations of abusive behavior by Home Secretary Priti Patel — all of which she denies — have made her a lightning rod in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new cabinet, a ready-made villain for critics who accuse this hard-line Brexit government of running roughshod over British customs and institutions.
But when a respected career civil servant resigned last week because of what he claimed was a “vicious and orchestrated” campaign against him by Ms. Patel, what began as a juicy boss-from-hell story turned into a metaphor for Mr. Johnson’s broader tensions with Britain’s much vaunted civil service.
The feud between a populist leader and an entrenched bureaucracy carries echoes of the Trump administration’s war on what the president and his allies call the “deep state.” In Britain, Mr. Johnson’s scruffy, iconoclastic adviser Dominic Cummings plays the role of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s one-time in-house provocateur.
In this case, the civil servant, Philip Rutnam, who served as the permanent secretary in the Home Office, said Ms. Patel’s behavior was part of a pattern of bullying civil servants that needed to be called out. His mutiny came as Mr. Cummings is moving aggressively to shake up the bureaucracy, seeking to inject new people — especially ones with the math and science skills he considers lacking in senior civil servants — and rooting out those he deems hostile to Brexit.
“Civil servants are under a lot of pressure,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of the Institute for Government, a think tank in London. “There is an intolerant tone in this government of, ‘You’re on our side or you’re not.’ The impartiality of the civil service is under question in a way that it hasn’t been.”
With Mr. Rutnam’s bitter public exit, which he promised to follow with a lawsuit against the Home Office, a feud that had been brewing behind closed doors spilled into the open. It was a startling break with decorum for the civil service, in which disputes are worked out privately and officials like Mr. Rutnam shun the limelight.
So far, Mr. Johnson has backed up Ms. Patel, who is a loyal political ally and a full-throated advocate for his project of leaving the European Union. As home secretary, her mandate includes overhauling Britain’s immigration system to implement a points-based system for admitting foreigners.
Among Mr. Rutnam’s offenses, people with knowledge of the situation said, was warning Ms. Patel how unrealistic it was to set up such a system in less than 10 months. While Ms. Patel has few defenders outside Mr. Johnson’s party — and faces a government investigation of her conduct — even her critics said they understood the pressures she faced, as the leader of a front-line ministry in a government that is carrying out radical changes in the name of getting Brexit done.
Philip Rutman speaking before the Home Affairs Committee in Parliament last month.Credit...Parliamentary Recording Unit
Moreover, Mr. Johnson’s aides are probably not wrong to suspect that on balance, most civil servants would have preferred that Britain never left the European Union. Many are weary after serving Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, who promised to deliver Brexit but went about it in a chaotic and contradictory way that sowed confusion in the bureaucracy.
“Cummings is right to think it’s a problem,” said Jonathan Powell, who served as chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Blair. “But if he was going to get rid of them, he would have to sack the entire civil service, because in their hearts, they believe that leaving the European Union was a bad idea.”
New prime ministers, Mr. Powell said, typically come into office determined to overhaul the civil service — and they typically fail.
In 1997, Mr. Blair and his aides were convinced that after 18 years of Conservative Party rule, the civil service would be implacably hostile to his Labour Party agenda. In 1999, he complained about the “scars on my back” from two years of battling with Britain’s public sector, a broader category that includes teachers, doctors and other public employees.
But Mr. Powell said that to his surprise, the civil service showed an almost preternatural capacity to fall in behind its new masters.
“We thought they would be Tories,” he said. “In fact, they bent over backward to carry out our manifesto.”
Such a lack of partisanship is one of the defining characteristics of Britain’s civil service, which encompasses roughly 450,000 people who work in the upper and middle levels of government agencies from the Treasury to the Ministry of Defense.
Chosen through a competitive exam process, civil servants pride themselves on their skill in pulling the levers of government and in offering unvarnished advice to a changing cast of politically appointed ministers.
That is a notable difference from the United States, where political appointees fill out the top ranks of most agencies. President Trump famously distrusted appointees who were held over from the Obama administration as well as high-level civil servants and moved to get rid of them.
The political agnosticism of British civil servants is so celebrated that in the popular comic TV series, “Yes, Minister,” about a permanent secretary and his minister, the government’s party affiliation is never even mentioned.
The show, which starred Nigel Hawthorne as the civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby, mined comic gold out of his masterful handling of his boss, portraying him as wily, quick-witted and cheerfully Machiavellian as he blocked ill-conceived projects.
“Ministers,” Sir Humphrey cracked at one point, “are like small children. They act on impulse.”
But even advocates for the civil service acknowledge its shortcomings. Along with being nonpartisan, civil servants are, by tradition, not held accountable for the performance of their departments or agencies. That can complicate their relationship with hard-driving ministers like Ms. Patel.
Defenders of Mr. Rutnam, the permanent secretary who clashed with her, said he was unflappable, honest and diligent. But others pointed to problems during his tenure at the Home Office, which became embroiled in a scandal over the wrongful deportation of Caribbean immigrants, and in his previous post in the Department for Transport, which has struggled to coordinate Britain’s semiprivatized rail industry.
Educated at Cambridge and Harvard, but virtually invisible until he went before cameras last week to deliver his emotional resignation, Mr. Rutnam was a civil servant out of central casting.
To Mr. Cummings, that is the problem. In a blog post in January, he complained that the civil service had too many “Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news.” (Never mind that Mr. Cummings studied ancient and modern history at Oxford.)
Emboldened after the Conservative Party’s thumping victory in the general election last December, Mr. Cummings has said he wants a broader overhaul of the civil service. He posted a recruiting call for data analysts, software developers, economists, and the like, to work as political advisers and “maybe as officials.”
Mr. Cummings also sought out “weirdos and misfits” — an invitation that boomeranged when one of his hires, Andrew Sabisky, was forced to resign after the disclosure that he said black people have a lower IQ than whites, and that enforced contraception could prevent “creating a permanent underclass.”
Experts said there was merit to Mr. Cummings’s drive for what he calls “genuine cognitive diversity.” Martin Stanley, a former civil servant who has written extensively on the subject and started a website devoted to it, said that while it had greatly improved its gender and ethnic diversity, it remained “too much of a club,” an institution where you could identify, from the first day, the people who would rise to the top.
Still, for all the furor over Ms. Patel’s clash with Mr. Rutnam, Mr. Stanley said the bigger danger was the tendency of civil servants to function as “courtiers,” appeasing their ministers rather than challenging them. That is a difficult characteristic to root out, he said, since ministers tend to like courtiers.
Critics of Mr. Cummings said his campaign was less about encouraging intellectual ferment than enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy. Mr. Johnson triggered the resignation of his top finance minister, Sajid Javid, last month after insisting that he get rid of advisers whom he and Mr. Cummings distrusted.
The Treasury, traditionally a power center in British government, is now being largely subjugated to Mr. Johnson’s office. There are no members of Mr. Johnson’s cabinet who are not dedicated Brexiteers.
“By U.K. standards,” Mr. Stanley said, “we have an increasingly presidential setup bent on centralized command and control.”
His family said they had lost a "truly loving person" and were unable to arrange a funeral for him because they were self-isolating.
It comes as the UK cases rose to 206.
The man, who had underlying health problems, had been admitted to Milton Keynes Hospital for another reason and spent two days in a ward before being isolated and tested for coronavirus, the hospital said.
In a statement, his family said: "We as a family have lost a truly loving and wonderful person and are trying to come to terms with this.
"He was 83 years old and a wonderful husband, dad, grandad and great-grandad who would go to any lengths to support and protect his family."
The family said they had been unable to grieve for him as they would have wanted.
"This whole nightmare is not something that we or our loved one asked for.
"As we are in isolation currently, we cannot arrange for him to be put to rest, and with all the activity that is going around with regards to everyone's concerns, we cannot grieve him as we would wish to."
The family said the cause of death had not been confirmed.
They also said they had not spoken to any media outlets before releasing their statement, "contrary to what has been reported".
"People should perhaps put themselves in our shoes and think how would they feel with some of the hurtful comments that are being made. We would not wish this experience on anyone and we would ask that you have respect for us and allow us to grieve."
The man had been travelling but had at first showed no symptoms of coronavirus, the hospital said.
Its chief executive, Prof Joe Harrison, said: "After two days in the hospital they started showing signs of deterioration and at that point we decided to isolate the patient and test them for coronavirus and unfortunately that came back as positive.
"What we were doing was looking after that patient in a bay on one of our wards and subsequent to that we have ensured all of those patients have been followed up, as have the staff, to ensure that they are tested and appropriately isolated."
He said five patients had been isolated and were awaiting coronavirus test results, while nine staff had been asked to self isolate.
The hospital said it had already carried out a review of the patient's care but determined he had been treated appropriately.
The UK's first death - a woman in her 70s who also had underlying health conditions - was confirmed on Thursday. A British man also died last month in Japan after contracting the virus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
As of Saturday morning, 21,460 had been tested for the virus, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Jenny Harries told the BBC a decision about the next phase of delaying the spread of the virus would depend on how fast the number of cases rose.
But she said the UK was "teetering on the edge" of sustained transmission.
The UK's strategy on responding to the virus has three phases - containment, delay, and mitigation - alongside ongoing research.
Up until now, the containment phase has involved catching cases early and tracing all close contacts to halt the spread of the disease for as long as possible,
Moving into the delay phase could see the introduction of "social distancing" measures, such as closing schools and urging people to work from home.
Dr Harries said a decision on formally moving to the next phase would depend on how quickly the number of cases rises.
"We are, if you like, teetering on the edge, but not there just yet," she said. "We have surveillance systems in place and we're watching that on a daily basis."
The delay phase would focus on trying to prevent cases from rising too sharply, pushing the peak of the epidemic out of the winter period and helping health and social care services manage the flow of patients, she said.
Scientific advisers are due to review the evidence next week on measures such as restricting large gatherings, she said.
Dr Harries said they needed to "balance the benefits" with minimising disruption to people's lives and the economy, as well as ensuring that they are implemented at the time when they will have the most impact.
In other developments:
The updated figures come as US authorities prepare to respond to a coronavirus-hit cruise ship carrying British passengers off the Californian coast, after 21 people on board tested positive for the illness.
US Vice-President Mike Pence said on Friday that the Grand Princess, carrying more than 3,500 people on board, including 140 Britons, had been directed to a non-commercial port for testing.
Jackie Bissell, from Dartford in Kent, said passengers have had little information about what would happen to them since a note was pushed through their door two days earlier saying the virus may be on the ship.
"You can't go out. You can just go out in the hall if somebody taps your door. They put your food outside, drop your menus inside and that's about it," the 70-year-old said.
Dr Harries said she has a "great deal of trust" in the US public health system and said the Foreign Office was "extremely active" in looking after UK citizens abroad.
Globally, the number of coronavirus cases has now passed 100,000, with 3,400 deaths.
The government has updated its advice for travellers from Italy - the country in Europe that has been worst-affected by the virus with more than 4,600 cases.
It now says people who develop symptoms after returning from any part of Italy - not just the north of the country - should self-isolate, while those returning from quarantined areas should self-isolate even without symptoms.
The Foreign Office is also warning travellers to Moscow in Russia that they may be told to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival from the UK, as part of measures to control the virus.
It says in a small number of cases, foreign visitors have been placed in enforced quarantine if they have not complied.
Have you or anyone else you know been affected by the coronavirus? You can tell us your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
On Saturday, the hospital confirmed the patient, who was admitted for a separate issue, had spent two days in a ward before being isolated and tested for coronavirus.
The man, who had been travelling, had at first showed no symptoms of coronavirus, the hospital said.
Prof Joe Harrison, chief executive of the hospital trust, said: "After two days in the hospital they started showing signs of deterioration and at that point we decided to isolate the patient and test them for coronavirus and unfortunately that came back as positive.
"What we were doing was looking after that patient in a bay on one of our wards and subsequent to that we have ensured all of those patients have been followed up, as have the staff, to ensure that they are tested and appropriately isolated.
"We currently have five patients who are isolated and have been tested and we are awaiting results of those to come back and we have asked nine staff to self isolate."
The hospital said it had already carried out a review of the patient's care but determined he had been treated appropriately.
The UK's first death - a woman in her 70s who also had underlying health conditions - was confirmed on Thursday. A British man also died last month in Japan after contracting the virus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
The UK's strategy on responding to the virus has three phases - containment, delay, and mitigation - alongside ongoing research.
Up until now, the containment phase has involved catching cases early and tracing all close contacts to halt the spread of the disease for as long as possible,
Moving into the delay phase could see the introduction of "social distancing" measures, such as closing schools and urging people to work from home.
Dr Harries said a decision on formally moving to the next phase would depend on how quickly the number of cases rises.
"We are, if you like, teetering on the edge, but not there just yet," she said. "We have surveillance systems in place and we're watching that on a daily basis."
The delay phase would focus on trying to prevent cases from rising too sharply, pushing the peak of the epidemic out of the winter period and helping health and social care services manage the flow of patients, she said.
Scientific advisers are due to review the evidence next week on measures such as restricting large gatherings, she said.
Dr Harries said they needed to "balance the benefits" with minimising disruption to people's lives and the economy, as well as ensuring that they are implemented at the time when they will have the most impact.
In other developments:
The updated figures come as US authorities prepare to respond to a coronavirus-hit cruise ship carrying British passengers off the Californian coast, after 21 people on board tested positive for the illness.
US Vice-President Mike Pence said on Friday that the Grand Princess, carrying more than 3,500 people on board, including 140 Britons, had been directed to a non-commercial port for testing.
Jackie Bissell, from Dartford in Kent, said passengers have had little information about what would happen to them since a note was pushed through their door two days earlier saying the virus may be on the ship.
"You can't go out. You can just go out in the hall if somebody taps your door. They put your food outside, drop your menus inside and that's about it," the 70-year-old said.
Dr Harries said she has a "great deal of trust" in the US public health system and said the Foreign Office was "extremely active" in looking after UK citizens abroad.
Globally, the number of coronavirus cases has now passed 100,000, with 3,400 deaths.
The government has updated its advice for travellers from Italy - the country in Europe that has been worst-affected by the virus with more than 4,600 cases.
It now says people who develop symptoms after returning from any part of Italy - not just the north of the country - should self-isolate, while those returning from quarantined areas should self-isolate even without symptoms.
The Foreign Office is also warning travellers to Moscow in Russia that they may be told to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival from the UK, as part of measures to control the virus.
It says in a small number of cases, foreign visitors have been placed in enforced quarantine if they have not complied.
Have you or anyone else you know been affected by the coronavirus? You can tell us your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
