New UK rules credit foreign and military ATCO training
If you’re an air traffic controller trained abroad or in the UK military, the path to a UK licence is about to get clearer. Today, 19 November 2025, ministers laid new regulations before Parliament. The rules were signed on 17 November and take effect on 10 December 2025, according to the UK legislation website.
The law is called the Crediting of Third Country and Military Certification for Air Traffic Controllers Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/1203). It allows the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to recognise parts of your previous training when you apply for a UK air traffic controller (ATCO) licence.
Statutory Instruments are how ministers switch on detailed rules without passing a new Act. When an SI is “made”, the minister has signed it. When it is “laid”, Parliament sees it and can scrutinise it. “Coming into force” is the date the rules start to apply-in this case, 10 December 2025.
If you hold a third country licence-an ATCO licence issued under the Chicago Convention’s Annex 1 by a country other than the UK-the CAA may give you credit for the knowledge, experience and skills you have already demonstrated. Credit can reduce your course duration, the number of lessons or specific training hours you need to complete in the UK.
Before any credit is granted, the CAA must obtain a credit report from a UK training organisation. That report compares your previous training with the UK ATCO training requirements in Subpart D of Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) No 2015/340, and it makes a recommendation the CAA has to consider.
There is one important carve‑out. If your licence comes from a country that already has an international agreement with the UK recognising ATCO certificates under Article 68(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, these new crediting rules do not apply because recognition is handled by that agreement.
The same approach now applies to UK military controllers. If you hold a UK military certificate of competence issued by the Ministry of Defence under Regulatory Article RA 3202, the CAA may credit your training towards a UK ATCO licence. Again, the decision follows a credit report from a training organisation.
That credit report has to do some careful homework. It must describe how your original licence or certificate-including ratings, certificates, authorisations and qualifications-was issued, spell out the privileges you held, assess equivalence against UK requirements, and recommend exactly which UK training elements could be credited. It must also include copies of supporting documents and, where available, the relevant national rules and procedures.
What this means for you is straightforward but not automatic. Credit can shorten your route to a UK licence, but you still need to meet the UK standard and the CAA decides case by case. The quickest way to prepare is to gather full training records, evidence of privileges and ratings, and contact a UK training organisation so they can build the report the CAA needs once the rules start on 10 December 2025.
If you run or teach within a training organisation, your role becomes central. You will map an applicant’s previous training against UK Subpart D, document the evidence and give a clear recommendation. The CAA must take your recommendation into account when setting any reduction in course length, lessons or hours.
Ministers have built in accountability. The Secretary of State must review the regulations, publish the first report by 10 December 2030, and then publish further reports at intervals of no more than five years. Under section 30(4) of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, each report must explain the objectives, measure delivery, and test whether a lighter system could achieve the same aims.
The regulations extend across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Department for Transport’s note says there is no significant impact on business or the voluntary sector, and an Explanatory Memorandum plus a de minimis assessment sit alongside the instrument on the UK legislation website. Signed on 17 November 2025 by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Keir Mather, this is a practical update that helps experienced controllers convert their skills into a UK licence with less duplicate training.