GovWire

A new organisation, the Defence Safety Authority (DSA), will be launched on 01 April 2015. The DSA will bring together the Defence Safety and Environment Authority (DSEA), Military Aviation Authority (MAA) and Defence Fire Safety Regulator (DFSR) to form a single common managed organisation under the leadership of a 3 star Director General (DG DSA), Air Marshal Garwood, who will be directly accountable to the Secretary of State (SofS). The DSA will be subject to a period of development and this will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will achieve Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on 01 April 2015 and the second phase will achieve Full Operating Capability (FOC) on 01 April 2016.

The MAAs responsibility for regulating all aspects of Air Safety across Defence remains with no change to identity, brand and logo, however, the transition of the organization under the DSA will bring some limited changes. Every effort is being made to maintain stability for (and minimise impact on) the regulated community at IOC.

• at IOC the MAA regulator outputs will remain unchanged
• the MAA will be headed by a newly formed post of Director MAA (D MAA). Air Vice Marshal Paul Atherton will assume the role on 01 April 2015
• DG DSA will be the Convening Authority for Aviation Service Inquiries (SIs) and, subject to formal agreement, will become the primary Convening Authority for all safety related accidents from 01 April 2015
• a new DSA charter which encompasses all Defence safety regulators will replace the MAA charter
• MAA role and multiuser email addresses will change from 01 April 2015, in most cases existing email addresses will be prefixed by DSA (i.e. MAA-XXXXX@mod.uk to become DSA-MAA-XXXXX@mod.uk)
• the Military Air Accident Investigation Branch (MilAAIB) and the Land Accident Investigation Team (LAIT) will come under the functional authority and line management of DG DSA

The MAA is committed to ensuring that any changes do not adversely impact on the regulatory output of the organisation, whilst simultaneously exploring opportunities to develop and improve Air Safety.

Further information can be found in our Key facts flyer (PDF, 74.3KB, 1 page), MAA/RN/2015/03(D OPS) and queries should be emailed to DSA-MAA-Enquiriesmailbox@mod.uk.

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