Where You Can Fly a Drone in the UK: Distances, Airports and Privacy

Knowing whether you can legally fly your drone somewhere is only half the picture in the UK. The other half is what the camera on board is allowed to record, because a drone that is perfectly legal to fly can still put you on the wrong side of privacy and harassment law if you point it at the wrong place.

The Core Distance and Height Rules

Wherever you are flying in open airspace, a small set of baseline rules applies across the UK.

Maximum height is 120 metres (400ft) above the surface directly beneath the aircraft, not above sea level or above your own launch point if the ground rises or falls.

Distance from uninvolved people is 50 metres horizontally as the general rule. People who are with you and involved in what you are doing, such as friends or family flying with you, are not covered by that 50-metre rule whatever drone you fly. The main exception for uninvolved people is the lightest aircraft: a sub-250g drone, or one marked UK0, UK1 or C0 (or C1 until 31 December 2027), may fly closer than 50 metres to uninvolved people and over them, though never over a crowd.

Distance from areas, rather than individual people, comes into play under the A3 subcategory: 150 metres horizontally from residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas as a whole. As with the 50-metre rule, sub-250g and UK0/UK1/C0-marked aircraft (and C1-marked aircraft until 31 December 2027) are exempt from the 150-metre distance.

Never over a crowd. Whatever subcategory or exemption an aircraft qualifies for elsewhere, no drone may be flown over a crowd or an organised assembly of people. This rule has no lightweight exception.

Visual line of sight (VLOS) must be maintained at all times, meaning the pilot can see the aircraft directly with their own eyes. Watching through binoculars, through the drone's camera feed, through a zoom lens, or through FPV goggles does not satisfy this requirement on its own; those tools can supplement what you see, but they cannot replace direct eyesight of the aircraft itself.

Flight Restriction Zones Around Airports

Airports and aerodromes are protected by a Flight Restriction Zone (FRZ), and flying inside one without permission is one of the most common ways new pilots run into trouble.

An FRZ is built from three layered pieces. The core is the aerodrome's Aerodrome Traffic Zone (ATZ), a cylinder with a radius of either 2 or 2.5 nautical miles depending on the aerodrome, extending up to 2,000ft. Around each runway, the FRZ also adds Runway Protection Zones (RPZs): rectangles roughly 1km wide that extend 5km out from each runway end, also up to 2,000ft. Finally, where any area within 1km of the aerodrome's boundary lies outside the ATZ, the FRZ extends to 1km beyond the boundary to cover it. Some protected aerodromes have no ATZ; for those, the FRZ includes a circle with a 2 nautical mile radius instead.

Not every aerodrome follows this exact shape. Heliports do not have the rectangular RPZs that fixed-wing runways generate, since there is no runway to protect in the same way. Spaceports instead use a simpler, flat cylinder with a 5km radius.

If you want to fly inside an FRZ, the rule is straightforward: you need permission from the airport or from air traffic control before you launch. There is no workaround that lets you fly inside an FRZ without that permission, no matter how small or camera-free the aircraft is.

No-Fly Restrictions Around Prisons

Separately from airport protections, flying over closed prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales is restricted under regulations made using the power in Article 239 of the Air Navigation Order 2016, which came into force on 25 January 2024. The detail of exactly how far these restrictions extend, and what the penalties are for breaching them, varies by site and by the specific regulations in force, so this guide does not attempt to state a single figure. Anyone planning to fly anywhere near a prison or young offender institution should check the current restriction directly with the CAA or NATS rather than guessing at a distance.

Drones, Cameras and Your Neighbours' Privacy

This is where drone law overlaps with the subject RecordingLaw.com covers most closely: what you are and are not allowed to record.

If you fly a camera drone purely for your own personal or household purposes, such as filming your own garden or a family occasion on your own property, that use generally falls outside the UK GDPR under what is often called the domestic purposes exemption. Purely personal, non-commercial use of this kind is not normally treated as the kind of data processing the UK GDPR was built to regulate.

That exemption is narrower than it might sound, though. Once footage extends beyond your own property boundary and starts capturing identifiable people, whether that is a neighbour's garden, a shared driveway, or people on a nearby street, you can move outside the domestic purposes exemption altogether. At that point the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 can apply to you directly, and you can find yourself treated as a data controller with the responsibilities that status carries, including having a lawful basis for recording and, in some circumstances, being able to respond to requests about the footage from people who appear in it.

The UK's data protection regulator, the ICO (the Information Commissioner's Office, whose functions passed to the new Information Commission on 30 September 2026; it continues to be known as the ICO), groups drones together with CCTV, automatic number plate recognition and smart doorbell cameras as forms of surveillance-camera technology that raise similar privacy questions, even though the equipment looks very different. The same underlying principles the ICO applies to a doorbell camera pointed at a neighbour's front door, proportionality, minimising what is captured, and being clear about why you are recording, apply just as much to a camera mounted on a drone.

Data protection law is not the only exposure here, either. Flying a drone to repeatedly watch, follow or film a specific neighbour can raise a harassment claim under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (in Northern Ireland, the Protection from Harassment (Northern Ireland) Order 1997), separate from any data protection issue. Using a drone camera to observe someone in circumstances where they would reasonably expect privacy can also raise voyeurism concerns, and persistent, unwanted overflight of someone's property can amount to private nuisance even without any recording taking place at all. None of these routes turns on a fixed distance or a fixed number of incidents; they depend on the facts of what was done and how it affected the person on the receiving end.

For the general rules on cameras aimed at neighbours from a fixed position, such as a doorbell or CCTV camera, see our guide to CCTV and doorbell cameras in the UK. For the broader UK data protection framework a drone operator can become subject to, see our UK data privacy hub.

This guide sets out the general distance, height and privacy rules that apply to drone flying near people and property in the UK. It is not a substitute for checking live airspace restrictions before any specific flight, and it is not legal advice on a specific privacy or harassment complaint. For the registration and licensing rules that apply before you fly at all, see our guide to UK drone laws.

Frequently Asked Questions

How high can I legally fly a drone in the UK?

The general maximum height is 120 metres (400ft) above the surface directly beneath the aircraft, subject to any lower limits that apply near airports or other restricted areas.

How close can I fly my drone to other people?

The general rule is 50 metres from anyone not involved in your flight. Sub-250g drones, and those marked UK0, UK1 or C0 (or C1 until 31 December 2027), are exempt from that 50-metre distance, but no drone of any size may be flown over a crowd or an organised assembly.

What is a Flight Restriction Zone?

It is the protected airspace around an airport, made up of the aerodrome's Aerodrome Traffic Zone, its Runway Protection Zones extending out from each runway, and a further buffer around the aerodrome boundary. You need permission from the airport or air traffic control to fly inside one.

Can I fly a drone using only the camera feed to see where it is going?

No. You must keep the aircraft within your own direct, unaided visual line of sight at all times. Watching through the camera feed, FPV goggles, binoculars or a zoom lens does not satisfy this requirement by itself.

Is it legal to fly a drone over a prison?

Flying over closed prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales is restricted under regulations made under the Air Navigation Order 2016. Check the current restriction for the specific site before flying anywhere near one.

Can I film my neighbour's garden with my drone?

Recording beyond your own property boundary in a way that captures identifiable people can take you outside the personal-use exemption from data protection law, meaning the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 can apply to you. Repeated or targeted filming of a specific neighbour can also raise harassment or nuisance issues separate from data protection law.

Does data protection law apply to drone footage at all if I am just a hobbyist?

It can. Purely personal, non-commercial drone use on your own property is generally outside the UK GDPR, but that exemption narrows once footage captures identifiable people beyond your own property. The ICO treats drones as a surveillance-camera technology alongside CCTV and doorbell cameras for this reason.