generated: '2026-07-28' method: derived source: >- https://consultations.caa.co.uk/api/2.4/json_search_results?fields=all (HTTP 200, application/json, 1,527,648 bytes, 294 activities, fetched 2026-07-28) plus the enumerations transcribed in openapi/uk-caa-consultations-api-openapi.yml. name: UK Civil Aviation Authority consultation vocabulary description: >- The controlled vocabulary the UK Civil Aviation Authority actually uses to classify its public consultations and engagement activities, derived from the complete live corpus of every activity the CAA has published through the Citizen Space API (294 activities spanning 2016-03-15 to 2026-07-14). Nothing here is invented: every term id and display name below was emitted verbatim by the API on 2026-07-28, and the usage count is the number of activities carrying that term. This is the closest thing the CAA publishes to a machine-readable taxonomy of its own regulatory remit, and the only place in the estate where the regulator's internal structure (19 workspaces, from GA and Economic regulation to Cyber Security and Space) is exposed as stable ids. statistics: activities: 294 date_range: first_start: '2016/03/15' last_start: '2026/07/14' status: open: 17 closed: 277 progress: published: 294 visibility: public: 294 workspaces: 19 audiences: 47 interests: 43 areas: 0 term_sets: - set: workspaces title: "CAA workspaces (departments)" description: >- Each activity belongs to one workspace. The workspace id is the `de` search parameter and the `dept` argument of json_consultation_details; workspace_title is its display name. These are CAA business units, and they are the only stable public identifiers for the regulator's internal structure. parameter: "de / dept" count: 19 terms: - id: "ga" name: "GA" activities: 49 - id: "policy-development" name: "Policy Development" activities: 41 - id: "economic-regulation" name: "Economic regulation" activities: 33 - id: "corporate-communications" name: "Communications" activities: 28 - id: "airworthiness-policy-team" name: "Airworthiness Policy Team" activities: 23 - id: "safety-and-airspace-regulation-group" name: "Safety and Airspace Regulation Group" activities: 20 - id: "cmg" name: "Consumers and Markets" activities: 15 - id: "air-traffic-management" name: "Air Traffic Management" activities: 12 - id: "finance" name: "Finance" activities: 12 - id: "future-safety" name: "Future Safety" activities: 11 - id: "aerodrome-standards-department" name: "Aerodrome Standards Department" activities: 10 - id: "flight-operations-policy" name: "Flight Operations Policy" activities: 9 - id: "space" name: "Space" activities: 8 - id: "rpas" name: "RPAS" activities: 7 - id: "innovation" name: "Innovation" activities: 7 - id: "portfolio-delivery" name: "Portfolio Delivery" activities: 3 - id: "internal" name: "Internal" activities: 2 - id: "medical" name: "Medical" activities: 2 - id: "cyber-security" name: "Cyber Security" activities: 2 - set: audiences title: "Audiences" description: >- Who a consultation is aimed at; the term id is the value of the `au` search parameter. The CAA's audience taxonomy spans regulated entities (Commercial airlines, Aerodrome Operators), individuals (Airline passenger, Drone owner) and peer regulators (EASA, ICAO, Eurocontrol, European Commission). parameter: "au" count: 47 terms: - id: "Commercial airlines" activities: 129 - id: "General Aviation" activities: 118 - id: "Airport operators" activities: 110 - id: "Air Navigation Service Providers" activities: 95 - id: "Industry representative bodies" activities: 87 - id: "Regulatory bodies" activities: 77 - id: "Aerodrome Operators" activities: 71 - id: "Organisations affected by aviation" activities: 70 - id: "UAV operators" activities: 59 - id: "Government departments" activities: 55 - id: "Air traffic control staff" activities: 54 - id: "Flightcrew" activities: 46 - id: "Residents affected by aviation" activities: 46 - id: "Community groups" activities: 44 - id: "Drone operator" activities: 42 - id: "Military" activities: 42 - id: "Training organisations" activities: 40 - id: "International Civil Aviation Organization" activities: 39 - id: "Air taxi operators" activities: 38 - id: "National representative organisations or institutes" activities: 38 - id: "Drone owner" activities: 36 - id: "European Aviation Safety Agency" activities: 36 - id: "Eurocontrol" activities: 34 - id: "Ground handling providers" activities: 33 - id: "Elected political representatives" activities: 32 - id: "Airline passenger" activities: 32 - id: "Cargo shippers-1" name: "Cargo shippers" activities: 31 - id: "ATS initial training organisations" activities: 30 - id: "Ballons" name: "Balloons" activities: 29 - id: "Tour operators" activities: 29 - id: "Autogyros" activities: 28 - id: "FISO licence holders" activities: 27 - id: "Travel agents" activities: 26 - id: "RFFS Training Providers " activities: 26 - id: "Workers' representative bodies" activities: 26 - id: "European Commission" activities: 24 - id: "Model aircraft enthusiast" activities: 22 - id: "Spaceflight" activities: 20 - id: "Flight operations" activities: 18 - id: "eVTOL sector interest groups" activities: 16 - id: "Aviation Design & Certification " activities: 16 - id: "Airworthiness maintenance organisations" activities: 15 - id: "Business Aviation" activities: 14 - id: "Internal " activities: 8 - id: "Maintenance & Engineers" activities: 5 - id: "Design & Certification" activities: 4 - id: "Manufacturers" activities: 4 - set: interests title: "Interests (subject taxonomy)" description: >- The subject matter of a consultation; the term id is the value of the `in` search parameter. This is the CAA's own topical map of its regulatory remit - airworthiness, airspace, licensing, ATOL, consumer protection, spaceflight, drones. parameter: "in" count: 43 terms: - id: "Economic regulation-2" name: "Economic regulation" activities: 62 - id: "Air Traffic Control-1" name: "Air Traffic Control" activities: 47 - id: "Light aircraft" activities: 43 - id: "Drones" activities: 42 - id: "Economic regulation-1" name: "Economic regulation" activities: 40 - id: "Safety" activities: 39 - id: "Capacity" activities: 38 - id: "Airspace design, categorisation and access" activities: 34 - id: "Flying Displays and Events" activities: 32 - id: "Flightpaths" activities: 30 - id: "Airspace investment" activities: 30 - id: "Aircraft emissions" activities: 28 - id: "Airworthiness" activities: 27 - id: "Microlights" activities: 27 - id: "Aircraft noise" activities: 27 - id: "Airspace change proposals" activities: 27 - id: "Air Traffic Control" activities: 26 - id: "Consumer protection" activities: 26 - id: "Training" activities: 25 - id: "Airworthiness-1" name: "Airworthiness" activities: 24 - id: "Gyroplanes" activities: 23 - id: "Rescue and fire fighting" activities: 22 - id: "Model Aircraft" activities: 21 - id: "Local air quality" activities: 20 - id: "Security" activities: 18 - id: "Spaceflight" activities: 18 - id: "FISO training, qualification and licensing" activities: 17 - id: "AMC, GM, Licencing" name: "AMC & GM consultations" activities: 16 - id: "Flight Operations" activities: 15 - id: "Punctuality" activities: 14 - id: "Disability rights" activities: 13 - id: "Licensing" activities: 12 - id: "Manufacturers" activities: 11 - id: "CAA Strategy" activities: 11 - id: "Implementing Regulations" name: "Implementing Rules" activities: 10 - id: "Design and Certification" activities: 9 - id: "Baggage" activities: 9 - id: "ATOL" activities: 9 - id: "Internal Consultation " name: "Internal " activities: 9 - id: "VTOL Operations-1" name: "VTOL Operations" activities: 8 - id: "Special Condition consultations" activities: 7 - id: "MOC to Special Conditions" activities: 7 - id: "Manufacturers-1" name: "Manufacturers" activities: 3 - set: activity_types title: "Activity types" description: >- The kind of engagement. activity_type is the current 2.4 identifier (`at` search parameter), type_string is its display name, and type is the deprecated 2.0-2.3 legacy value (`ct` search parameter). Counts are from the full corpus. parameter: "at / ct" count: 6 terms: - id: basic_survey name: Online Survey legacy_type: QuickConsult activities: 225 - id: File name: Email/Postal Activity legacy_type: File activities: 51 - id: Link name: Link legacy_type: Link activities: 11 - id: basic_form name: Form legacy_type: QuickConsult activities: 4 - id: Document name: Offline Activity legacy_type: Document activities: 2 - id: consultation name: Consultation legacy_type: QuickConsult activities: 1 - set: states title: "Activity states" description: >- The `st` search parameter and the `status` response field. Transcribed from the published reference and confirmed against the live corpus. parameter: "st" count: 3 terms: - id: open activities: 17 - id: forthcoming activities: 0 note: Documented and accepted by the API; no activity in the live corpus currently carries it. - id: closed activities: 277 - set: field_tiers title: "Field tiers" description: >- The `fields` parameter. Cumulative - `all` includes `extended`, `extended` includes `basic`. Omitting the parameter is equivalent to `basic`. parameter: "fields" count: 3 terms: - id: basic - id: extended - id: all - set: date_search_keys title: "Date search keys" description: The `dk` parameter, which selects which date `fd` and `td` filter against. parameter: "dk" count: 2 terms: - id: op name: open date - id: cl name: close date data_quality: description: >- Findings observed while deriving this vocabulary from the live corpus. These are real defects in the CAA's published taxonomy, recorded rather than smoothed over. findings: - issue: duplicate-interest-ids detail: >- Four interest display names are backed by two ids each, differing only by a numeric suffix - "Airworthiness"/"Airworthiness-1", "Air Traffic Control"/"Air Traffic Control-1", "Manufacturers"/"Manufacturers-1", and "Economic regulation-1"/"Economic regulation-2" (there is no unsuffixed "Economic regulation" id). A consumer filtering with in=Airworthiness silently misses every activity tagged with the duplicate. - issue: identifiers-are-display-strings detail: >- Term ids are human-readable labels, not slugs - they carry spaces, ampersands, commas and case ("AMC, GM, Licencing", "Design & Certification"). They must be URL-encoded, and any change to the label is a breaking change to the id. - issue: trailing-whitespace-in-ids detail: >- Several ids end in a space and are therefore easy to mis-handle - "Internal ", "Internal Consultation ", "Aviation Design & Certification ", "RFFS Training Providers ". - issue: id-name-divergence detail: >- Some ids do not match their display name, including a typo preserved in the id - audience id "Ballons" displays as "Balloons"; interest id "AMC, GM, Licencing" displays as "AMC & GM consultations"; interest id "Implementing Regulations" displays as "Implementing Rules". - issue: areas-unavailable detail: >- The `ar` (area) parameter is documented, but no activity in the corpus carries an areas array - the reference itself notes the field "is omitted unless area support is installed". Area support is not installed on the CAA instance. notes: - >- Scope limit worth stating plainly - this vocabulary describes the CAA's CONSULTATION platform, not UK aviation. The CAA publishes no aeronautical vocabulary: no AIXM, no digital AIP, no NOTAM feed, no code list of its own. See conformance/uk-caa-conformance.yml. - >- Terms are a moving target. Workspaces, audiences and interests are configured per Citizen Space site and can be added or renamed by CAA staff at any time; counts are a snapshot of 2026-07-28.