Part 4: Unmanned Aerial Devices in UK construction – key issues, risks and emerging guidance

Drone, unmanned aerial vehicle and unmanned aerial system (“UAS”) technologies have rapidly expanded in UK construction due to their ability to access complex or hazardous areas and capture detailed aerial data and information.

Our final instalment builds upon our commentary concerning construction businesses using drones for site operations, directly or via third‑party operators. We previously outlined the importance of understanding and complying with legal and regulatory obligations, as well as managing potential liabilities, risks and insurance considerations. Below we consider other ways to potentially address or manage key contractual risks.

Contractual terms

Check your contract terms upstream with employer clients for obligations concerning compliance with statutory requirements, planning permissions and consents, and data protection or information management. It will be important to understand and maintain the agreed insurance levels and reflect the basis of cover (and any exclusions) in relation to drones in contracts.

Finally, ensure that the contract drafting is appropriate for digital services or deliverables. Traditional construction contracts often fail to adequately address the specific requirements or risks associated with digital services, so the terms and conditions should carefully align with the agreed scope of services.

Subcontracting works or services

The use of drones should be considered and addressed when appointing suppliers to collect information or data. Managing the legal, safety and commercial risks is crucial for all parties.

When doing so, it is important to be clear on the applicable contractual position, including:

• Responsibility for legal and regulatory compliance, including ensuring that the supplier holds the requisite registrations, licences or consents.
• Outputs or deliverables, including required image resolution (e.g., pixel size, clarity and format); expected video quality or technical specifications; flight patterns; and assumptions. Clear specification reduces ambiguity, ensures consistency and supports the reliability of work or decisions based upon the information or imagery captured.
• Reliance on data, i.e. to identify and assess risks, support design development and inform technical outputs. Accuracy could be affected by factors such as the suitability, quality and calibration of the drone and its sensors; appropriate flight planning; weather/environmental conditions; and post‑flight processing, interpretation or modelling of data. Any assumptions or limitations and responsibility for checking, validating or interpreting the data before it is used for design, reporting or decision‑making should be set out.
• Insurance requirements, specifying the requisite scope and level of cover to be maintained.
• Allocation of risk and liability, unless this is clearly set out the position will depend upon the applicable contractual arrangements and degree of control between the parties. Employers or organisations may potentially be exposed to vicarious liability or claims for acts or omissions during flights, as well as direct liability for failures in training, supervision or governance.
• Data protection and information management, including who is acting as the data controller or data processor, how personal data will be captured, stored, transferred and deleted and what privacy notices or consents are required.
• Ownership and licensing of outputs such as aerial imagery, videos, surveys, data, or models, including intellectual property rights, rights of use and restrictions on onward sharing.
• Security and confidentiality obligations, particularly where footage includes sensitive infrastructure, private or residential land or commercially confidential sites.
• Operational requirements, including compliance with Civil Aviation Authority (“CAA”), statutory or regulatory requirements (backed by appropriate indemnities given the risks of non-compliance), site rules or protocols, risk and method statements and project‑specific restrictions on flight paths or no‑fly areas.
• Reporting and document management obligations, i.e. near‑miss or incident reporting to the CAA, project team or other stakeholders.
• Indemnities (where appropriate), to provide protection against certain losses arising from misuse or non‑compliance.

Completing appropriate due diligence checks and addressing these issues early on will help to reduce project risk by ensuring clear allocation of responsibility and supporting consistent, compliant and safe drone use across multi‑disciplinary project teams. Such an approach also minimises the impact of later disputes concerning performance, deliverables, liability or ownership of data.

Concluding thoughts

Drones provide significant efficiency, accuracy and safety advantages for construction projects, including enhanced surveying and inspection capabilities, improved progress monitoring and logistics and better access to difficult or hazardous areas. However, their deployment is subject to a detailed and developing legal and regulatory framework. Non‑compliance with the requirements can expose parties to material legal, operational, reputational/relationship and commercial risks, including civil claims, regulatory investigation enforcement, insurance complications and wider project or programme impacts.

A clear contractual allocation of roles and responsibilities, including covering compliance with statutory or CAA requirements, data protection obligations, insurance arrangements and on‑site operational risk will be important in practice. Construction businesses should ensure that project delivery teams, operators and supply chain partners implement appropriate risk‑management measures through well‑drafted contracts or subcontracts, robust site procedures and effective project governance.

For further advice or assistance on the issues covered above or in this series, please contact Andrew Croft or Kayleigh Rhodes.