You are being audited.
This is what you need to know!
Please sign the petition:
The National Trust should respect drone flyers, for disabled and wider public access.
This is not a contract; it's a best-effort statement of existing law in the UK some of which you must abide by whether you read this or not.
Filming is Lawful
- It is a reasonable and lawful activity to film anything visible from a publicly accessible place for the purposes of an audit, informational video, or evidence collection.
- Examples of usage might include improving online directories, crowd-sponsored education of security industry employees, or access for disabled people.
- Anything seen from a publicly accessible space is accessible to the public.
- Auditors who are generally not incorporated are not bound by data protection laws and do not need to give their name or show you the recording, even if they make a profit.
- Most of the time, auditors are not required to give their name to any police that attend unless an officer has reasonable suspicion of an indictable offence.
- Many public services film buildings accessible from public spaces, such as private CCTV, Google Street View, news agencies, or aerial land surveys.
- If you genuinely believe filming might cause a national security issue (affecting the country's security, potentially requiring a military response), inform the auditor and call 999.
Things to Note About Reasonable Suspicion
- You need genuine, evidence-based suspicion—grounded in facts that would convince a reasonable person—to perform an arrest.
- This suspicion needs to be of an indictable offence (not any criminal offence, one that can be tried in the crown court).
- A reasonable person is defined as someone aware of all laws and public opinions related to the arrest.
- Criminal Charges are possible for false imprisonment, and Civil Claims are possible for unlawful detention.
- Police need this too in order to perform a detention, arrest or search without consent. It is illegal to base suspicion on discriminatory factors like gender, race, disability, or orientation.
- No reason is required to perform an "audit" (essentially an informational video), but auditing itself is a lawful reason. Just performing an audit is not reasonable grounds for suspicion of an offence.
- Police conducting a search, detention, or arrest without consent must be able to clearly articulate the suspicion to a reasonable person and must express it in court proceedings and to the custody officer.
- Failure of police to disclose suspicion when asked (without valid justification) may result in potentially unlimited compensation claims for wrongful detention, search, or arrest.
- Public videography often serves to educate the public about legal rights and should not be automatically assumed criminal.
Access to Private Land
- You may legally access private land connected to public roads and footpaths if there are no signs or locked gates.
- Criminal trespass is where police and security guards get the right to remove people from land with necessary force. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
- Criminal trespass occurs the moment someone doesn't make a reasonable effort to leave, or stops making a reasonable effort to leave, after becoming aware that the landowner does not permit them to be on the land. It also applies if the person enters or re-enters a property they know they don't have permission to enter, for example, if there is a sign.
- The council often requires people who frequently require police help to have security.
- Civil trespass on its own does not provide any rights to act unless damage is caused, but it technically occurs simply if there isn't permission to be somewhere, knowingly or not.
- Civil trespass is unlawful not illegal.
- It can be tricky for security because if you, as security, did not make it clear, and the person who needs to leave did not really know they were being asked to leave, it opens up civil claim territory.
- Requests to leave shared spaces (e.g., access footpaths) require permission from all parties with access rights. Failure to confirm this permission risks legal action against you.
- Land open to the public is treated as a public space regarding filming and photography.
- Public rights of way are public spaces, and permission to fly drones is assumed if there are no signs.
- If a member of the public is asked to leave a public right of way on private land, they have a reasonable time to leave and can then pass or re-pass the path or bridleway once they have left, at any time.
- A path used by the public for more than 20 years becomes a public right of way automatically.
Drones
- Trespass cannot be caused by an aircraft performing a normal flight that does not break the Civil Aviation Act or Air Navigation Order. Civil Aviation Act 1982, Part III, Section 76 (1) .
- Drones weighing 249g or less may legally fly in residential, industrial, and commercial areas without flight restrictions (e.g., near prisons or airports). Source: Civil Aviation Authority
- The filming location is defined as where the drone takes off or lands. Source: Filmlondon.org.uk (aerial photography experts)
- Most CAA restrictions apply to drones weighing 250g or more.
- Drones must remain in line of sight in a way that you can tell the orientation of the drone by looking at it. The CAA guidance says that the drone manuals instruct what this distance is for each drone. Most manuals (including DJE brand) suggest that this distance is as far away as you can tell the orientation of the drone by using maneuvers.
- Auditors profiting from drone use will usually have insurance.
- This type of drone flight is not a commercial flight even if directly paid to fly. That is when you are carrying passengers for money.
- The owners of the land are generally not entitled to details before, during, or after a normal flight. They may be entitled if damage to their property occured.
- Registered pilots display an Operator ID on the drone, which is only provided to the police if the flyer is suspected of an offence. The operator ID would allow someone to trace those responsible if the drone crashed on your land.
- The Operator ID refers to the owner of the drone not the flyer.
- There is no obligation to share the Operator ID unless to the police if an offense is suspected. CAA guidance for 249g drones