Regulatory & Technical Services Group

The CA’s Regulations and Technical Services group (RATS) continues to be at the forefront of lobbying on behalf of the cruising community to mitigate the impact of the UK leaving the EU.

For over three years, RATS has worked hard to identify, campaign and propose solutions to national and international government and legislative bodies on issues affecting cruisers due to Brexit.

Following a meeting with HM Treasury (HMT) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the Cruising Association (CA) is pleased to confirm that the UK Government will make a positive change to the application of Returned Goods Relief (RGR) for recreational craft. As a result, many boat owners will no longer have to pay VAT on the return of their boats to the UK.

The proposed change has considerable benefits for the UK based cruising community:

Boat owners in the United Kingdom holding a VHF radio licence must ensure compliance with the new licence conditions introduced by Ofcom.

The new licence conditions have been introduced by Ofcom due to concerns about the risk of exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions which are transmitted by all radio equipment. This change in licence conditions affects boat owners using radio, radar and other emergency alerting equipment on UK vessels.