Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con) I beg to move, That this House has
considered the UK space industry. It is a pleasure to serve under
your chairmanship, Mrs Murray, and a delight for me to talk about
this extraordinarily thriving industry right here in the UK. As
chair of the all-party parliamentary group for space, I get the
opportunity to see at first hand what is happening in the UK. The
group has recently put on four exhibitions, taking over the Attlee
Suite...Request free trial
(Wyre Forest) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the UK space industry.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray,
and a delight for me to talk about this extraordinarily thriving
industry right here in the UK.
As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for space, I get
the opportunity to see at first hand what is happening in the UK.
The group has recently put on four exhibitions, taking over the
Attlee Suite here in Parliament to highlight various aspects of
our thriving space industry. We started last year with launch and
propulsion, followed by current applications that use space, and
we have finished with two sessions on the future of space and the
important issue of space sustainability. The exhibitions were
well attended by parliamentarians, civil servants and industry
experts, and over the four events, more than 40 space companies
had the chance to highlight their skills and products to
attendees. The exhibitions were supported by ADS and UKspace, and
my thanks go to the teams that helped both with those events and
in supporting the all-party parliamentary group.
Such drop-by exhibitions serve to highlight that the UK space
industry is thriving, active and innovative. Indeed, it is the
leader in smart thinking for the sustainability of space and how
we will preserve it for future generations. Smart thinking on
things such as ESG —environmental, social and
governance—kitemarking for UK-licensed space flights, and the
wider discussions of space sustainability bonds mean that the UK
is a thought leader that will ensure that the ultimate infinity
of space is not lost to us because of an impenetrable cloud of
space debris orbiting the earth.
At this point, I should declare that my fascination with the
sector goes so far that I take an interest in specific companies
and organisations, and I refer hon. Members to my entry in the
Register of Members' Financial Interests. I will, of course,
avoid speaking about those interests that are financial this
afternoon, for important reasons.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Gentleman for introducing the debate. I spoke
to him beforehand and I am keen to ensure that whenever this
process moves forward on the engineering side, we in Northern
Ireland can benefit. Does he agree that, with engineering the
largest subsector in Northern Ireland and especially in the field
of aerospace, skill and capacity levels are high and therefore
ripe for further investment? Does he further agree that Northern
Ireland and the United Kingdom must be globally promoted as being
shovel ready or, to use the terminology, rocket ready for greater
investment?
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and I will mention Belfast
later. Queen's University Belfast has recently hosted some
incredibly important energy-beaming experiments, which will
completely open up the possibility for the UK to be world leaders
in space-based solar power. I will talk a little more about that
later.
My interest in space also derives from my unachieved desire to be
an aeronautical engineer. My career in the City of London and an
interest in economics have given me the insight to recognise that
the space industry is the epitome of what talked about in his 1776 book
“The Wealth of Nations”. The space industry epitomises a mature
economy's desire to seek ever more productive activities and the
UK is doing particularly well in that area.
The UK space sector as a whole has a turnover of some £17.5
billion per annum, employing nearly 50,000 people, 2,300 of whom
are apprentices.
(Edinburgh West) (LD)
I thank the hon. Member for giving way and for obtaining this
debate, which is of particular significance in Scotland and in my
constituency. I recently visited San Francisco and its space
industry, where Edinburgh University is highly regarded. An
ecosystem and an environment have been created there that
engender growth and co-operation between the university and the
private sector specifically on space. Does the hon. Member feel
we are doing enough in this country to engender the same sort of
ecosystem in places such as Edinburgh, where there is that
potential?
We are, but we could always do more. It is interesting that the
hon. Lady chose that moment to intervene because I was just about
to mention the amazing things going on in Scotland. Scotland is
fascinating for a whole load of different reasons, but she is
absolutely right to raise those important points. How we take
forward our space industry now through the relationship with the
Government is incredibly important to its success. I will talk
more about that later, but she should be proud that Scotland is
doing so well. I am pleased to see several Members from Scotland
who are here to rightly represent the interests of their
constituencies, and I look forward to hearing from them all.
In fact, my next line was that more CubeSats are built in Glasgow
than anywhere else in the world. Indeed, the space industry in
the UK has led to a number of key hubs for space across the
country, in addition to Glasgow and Scotland more widely. While
it is sometimes easy to overdo the definition of a hub, we have a
handful of significant centres leading the way. Harwell Science
and Innovation Campus near Oxford hosts a large campus of space
companies, from start-ups supported by the Satellite Applications
Catapult to offices for big primes and the European Space Agency.
Surrey has its research park at Guildford centred around the
leading UK satellite company, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
Cornwall has a hub developed around the Newquay spaceport and
Goonhilly earth station. Leicester has its own science and space
park with a fabulous museum and, of course, a space-dedicated
university. Scotland has not just its hub around Glasgow, but
potentially three vertical and two horizontal launch centres.
The global opportunity is immense. Across the world, turnover is
expected to grow from £270 billion in 2019 to £490 billion by
2030. It is vital that the UK not only participates in that
growth with our own domestic ambitions, but accelerates its
opportunity by seeking wider export markets.
(Morecambe and Lunesdale)
(Con)
I declare an interest as the UK space adviser—non-paid, of
course. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government are putting
more money into the space sector than any other Government before
them?
They are, but it could always be better. Again, I will come to
that later, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right that support
from Government in this complicated sector is incredibly
important.
To get back to the export market opportunities, the team at space
consultants Space4Sight has identified 25 nations across the
globe that are only now starting to show their space interest,
all of which would benefit from a collaboration with UK companies
and expertise. Indeed, I am heading to Vietnam in a month in my
role as the Prime Minister's trade envoy to Vietnam, and one of
the scheduled meetings is to promote UK space exports to that
economy, which is growing incredibly strongly. This is a huge
opportunity for the UK to grow space technology exports to newly
identified space nations.
Although we are good at this stuff, we must not be complacent. We
have a lead in many areas, but without the right environment, we
could lose out to other nations. We need to think about what
space is. I have always seen it as a thriving economic sector,
yet I notice that the Government, in their last restructuring,
chose to locate it in the Department for Science, Innovation and
Technology, as opposed to the Department for Business and Trade.
Space is a business, not a science project. While I have immense
respect for those supporting the sector in DSIT, and they have
done an incredibly good job, I hope the Minister will reassure me
that his Department sees space as a sector that contributes to
our economy, with a lot of commercial opportunity.
I would not want the Minister to feel that I do not appreciate
what his Department and some other Departments do for the sector.
The Government invest directly in space activities and, according
to the OECD, our public spending amounts to around 0.025% of our
national GDP. It sounds like a small number, but it represents
quite a significant amount of money. However, when compared with
other countries, it starts to look a bit small. It is half the
relative commitment of Germany, India and Belgium. It is a third
of the commitment of Italy and Japan, and a quarter of the
investment by France and the United States of America. The sector
is highly commercial, but because of the challenges of high
upfront costs, other countries have discovered that de-risking
opportunities for investors through grant funding stimulates
private investment. I hope Members of all parties agree that we
should get behind stimulating private investment in the sector
through grant funding.
We should not necessarily see space as a sector in its own right.
We have other assets in the UK that would benefit from a
symbiotic relationship with this super high-tech,
high-productivity sector of the economy. The City of London has
been a global leader of finance and financial markets for a few
centuries now. Expertise in trade finance, investment, insurance,
currency trading and the wider associated legal service has made
the City of London a global financial hub for a long time, but
our lead position is always under threat. For the City to remain
a leader, it needs to remain relevant.
A few years ago, I prepared a discussion paper on how we can take
inspiration from Gordon Brown's tax interventions in the UK film
industry to find a way to stimulate the City as a space finance
hub. created tax breaks for film
investment. I suspect a direct line can be drawn from his
intervention to the success, for example, of the Harry Potter
franchise. That series of films would always have been made but,
without that tax incentive, those spells may have been cast with
a Hollywood accent.
A selected tax break here, an innovative approach to governance
there, and the City could dominate the world as the go-to place
to raise money for space-related opportunities. The City would
continue its path from being innovative financier of trade across
the globe to modern financier of trade beyond the globe. Other
ideas are coming out of the City that would be good to get
behind. Professor Michael Mainelli, who is now Lord Mayor of
London, has been promoting a space protection initiative that
looks at the further purchase of space debris retrieval insurance
bonds to go on space flights to ensure that any debris could be
recovered in the event of a satellite going out of service.
Perhaps they could be called space junk bonds.
If we combine that financial expertise with our world-beating
universities and wider technical capabilities, the UK will become
the destination for all aspiring space entrepreneurs and
developers. With imagination for things such as a British space
bank, copying the British Business Bank or UK Infrastructure
Bank, the funding that the British Government might offer could
be leveraged several times. That would reinforce the message that
the Government in the UK are not just grant funding but
supporting space through innovative strategic partnerships.
Either way, uplifted long-term funding for the space sector to
deliver priorities in the national space strategy, such as the
space industrial plan; adopting a long-term approach to
industrial strategy that includes a policy commitment to grow
small and medium-sized enterprises; and an improved wider
understanding of the space sector to encourage more people into
science, technology, engineering and maths careers, would have an
extraordinarily energising effect on this highly productive
sector of our economy. That would certainly solve our current
productivity conundrum.
There are further ways the Government can help our growing space
sector and the many SMEs that participate. SMEs not only act as
suppliers to the big primes in programmes and projects, but have
their own prime missions and services. That brings world-beating
capability to the market. We need to consider how we can further
boost the sector. For example, a British space bank might also be
an equity investor as well as a debt funder, complementing the UK
Space Agency's grant funding. Government procurement can act as
an anchor customer for demonstrator missions. Scaling up the
space technology exploitation programme would help, for example,
to boost rapid development and implementation of cross-Government
space policy programmes, thereby boosting economic activity in
the sector.
I want to finish with some thoughts on an area where we are
leading the way, and which demonstrates how widespread the
application of space technology can be: space-based solar power.
I should declare that I serve as the chair of the advisory board
of the Space Energy Initiative, a coalition of businesses,
academia, Departments and specialists in this burgeoning area of
solar energy from space. I also serve as a non-executive director
of Space Solar, the UK's leading company seeking to develop this
actually not very new technology. I stress that those are
non-financial interests; I give my time on a pro bono basis.
That is an example of how an emerging sector is growing fast
right here in the UK. The Department for Energy Security and Net
Zero sponsored and set up a three-day conference last week to
study this area, at which I spoke on the last day. It was
astonishing to be in a room with such an extraordinary collection
of highly intelligent people, looking at something they all know
is not just a probability but a reality that will provide
dispatchable, baseload, cheap green energy at gigawatt scale
within the next 15 years.
Although many doubters suggest that that is science fantasy, UK
primes, the UK Space Agency, international primes, the European
Space Agency, leading universities and the UK Government all know
that this is a reality. Space-based solar power will happen, with
or without UK involvement. We are fast approaching the time when
we need to decide whether we are to be the driver of this
innovative approach to net zero or just another passenger.
If we seize the opportunity, space-based solar power will provide
cheap, clean energy faster and cheaper than nuclear. It will be
an astonishing export asset for the UK, be it through licensing
the technology to other nations or selling the power directly
from the satellites. It will tackle other issues in the UK, such
as grid equalisation. I repeat that the UK is leading in this
field. It is leading because the Government have supported not
just the ESA's Solaris programme but UK research for UK
businesses.
In the last few weeks, a huge success has been achieved in the
field of energy beaming through 360° using phased array
antennas—and it was done in Belfast. The Government have stepped
up to the plate to make this happen, and have indicated possible
further support through match funding.
However, it does not matter whether we are talking about
space-based solar power, GPS where the technology not only finds
the nearest pub but times financial transactions, internet
services via OneWeb, or Earth observation that helps everyone
from generals in Ukraine to farmers seeking yield improvement. A
massive range of services comes from the UK space industry, and
many of us do not even realise that they happen. We must
therefore strive to make sure that our space entrepreneurs are a
success, and that this British business success supports the
whole of our economy and public finances. That means that we need
Government support, because we do not want to find ourselves, as
we have done in the past, inventing something brilliant but not
exploiting it commercially. For example, Frank Whittle was a
brilliant engineer who invented the jet engine, only to see, a
few years later, an American pilot flying an American aeroplane
over America, using British technology to break the sound
barrier. We do not want to see that again.
We are really, really good at this stuff and the Government know
we are. That is why we can never get enough support in this
incredible industry. I am conscious that many other Members are
keen to speak, but I am sure that the Minister has heard what I
have said and I very much look forward to his speech later.
Mrs (in the Chair)
I remind Members that they need to bob if they wish to be called
in the debate.4.46pm
Mr (Orkney and Shetland)
(LD)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Murray. I
pay warm tribute to the hon. Member for Wyre Forest () for securing this debate and
for the work he does in the sector. We have spoken about the
strategic significance of the space industry for the United
Kingdom as a whole. Everything he said in that respect was
absolutely correct, but the words in his peroration—about
ensuring that we maximise the opportunities that will come from
the industry—were particularly pertinent. For my constituency,
that goes beyond the high-level opportunities that the hon.
Gentleman identified.
There are a number of specific local opportunities for Shetland,
as we host on Unst—the most northerly of all the Shetland
Islands—the Shetland spaceport at SaxaVord. We have seen that
quite remarkable progression in recent times as a consequence of
a lot of hard work by the Shetland spaceport, and I pay
particular tribute to Frank Strang and his colleagues for getting
it to this point. It is now licensed by the Civil Aviation
Authority, and we were delighted that it got a commitment of £10
million from the Government in the Budget. Indeed, such is the
nature of the achievement that the Shetland spaceport is now even
getting some interest from the Scottish Government—something else
that must be welcomed.
If you look at the right map, Mrs Murray—by which I mean a map
that has Shetland on it, and not just parked somewhere in the
Moray Firth in a box—you will see that Shetland, and Unst in
particular, sits at the highest latitude point in the United
Kingdom, and indeed one of the highest in Europe. That, in turn,
allows for a greater payload to be launched for the same fuel
efficiency, turning many of the disadvantages with which we have
struggled for so long into advantages. Because of where we are,
there are natural opportunities for security and safety that
would not necessarily be found closer to other larger centres of
population.
I was privileged to visit my right hon. Friend's constituency
last month to see the SaxaVord spaceport and the work being done
there. Does he agree that a lot of that work reflects the
ingenuity and effort that went into developing the oil and gas
industry in Shetland, and which is now being used in a similar
way to develop SaxaVord, and that that has already been
recognised by the space industry elsewhere in the world?
Mr Carmichael
I am delighted that my hon. Friend understands that it was a
privilege to visit Shetland. She is absolutely right about that.
What I am coming on to say fits well with that, because there are
lessons for Shetland to learn from its engagement with the space
industry and from how we have successfully engaged with the North
sea oil and gas industry for the past 40-odd years.
The history of Saxa Vord, even in my time, has not always been a
happy one. Back in the day, it was an RAF radar station waiting
for the Russian bear in the cold war to come screaming over the
polar ice cap. With the end of the Soviet Union and the fall of
the Berlin wall, it was felt that that sort of presence was not
necessary. That may have been somewhat premature. I remember, as
a Member of Parliament, when the RAF announced its drawdown from
Saxa Vord in 2005. I remember going to a meeting of the local
community in the Baltasound Hall and the feeling of absolute
desolation at that point, because RAF Saxa Vord had become such a
massive part of the local economy of Unst. That was to go
virtually overnight, and it was a struggle to find something to
replace it. We welcome the coming of the space industry to
Shetland, but we welcome it on our own terms and—as we did with
the offshore oil and gas industry—we want to maximise for
ourselves the opportunities that it can bring to our
communities.
Some of this is already starting to emerge. SaxaVord spaceport
has a science, technology, engineering and maths initiative that
already has collaborative research and development projects under
way with academic institutions, including the University of
Alaska, the University of Strathclyde and the University of
Edinburgh—I suspect that Edinburgh probably has the least
welcoming environment, in terms of temperature, of those
three.
SaxaVord also has an outreach programme for local Shetland
schools and colleges, generating future technical skills in the
area and ensuring a sustainable spaceflight ecosystem in Shetland
and the wider United Kingdom. For us as a community, keeping
young people in our community or giving them opportunities to
come back when they have been away and had their education is
critical. We see this as an opportunity.
It has to be said, though, that the coming of a spaceport to Unst
will be transformative for the community. One project that the
community is keen to proceed with—and which is deserving of some
support from the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom
Government—would be to replace our inter-island ferries with
fixed-links tunnels going from mainland Shetland to Yell, and
Yell to Unst. It is a case that stands well in its own right. It
is not an easy thing. To see the opportunities that come from the
construction of tunnels, look no further than to our neighbours
to the north-west, in Faroe Islands. That is the sort of thing
that should be Shetland's price for playing host to the space
industry. That is the sort of opportunity that we as a community
should be entitled to exploit and to expect co-operation on, and
support from, Government and elsewhere.
We are putting a lot of ourselves into this industry. This
industry has great significance strategically for the United
Kingdom, as well as economically and militarily, and in just
about every other way imaginable. When the Minister replies, I
hope he will acknowledge the significance of the contribution
that Shetland stands to make to the rest of the United Kingdom,
and that there is an understanding that, if we are to step up to
the plate for the benefit of the rest of the United Kingdom, then
the rest of the United Kingdom should acknowledge that
responsibility.
4.53pm
(St Austell and Newquay)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, Mrs Murray, and I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest () on securing it.
Something exciting has been happening in the space industry in
Cornwall in recent years. We have seen the revival of the
world-leading Goonhilly satellite tracking station, and I am
incredibly proud to have Spaceport Cornwall, based at Newquay
airport, in my constituency. It is something that I started
championing before I became a Member of Parliament, way back in
2014, when the original call for sites for a spaceport went out.
I worked very hard with Cornwall Council, the airport, the
Government and the UK Space Agency to get the licence for the
spaceport, and I was absolutely delighted that in January 2023 we
had our first launch—well, almost. Frustratingly and sadly, due
to a faulty $100 fuel filter, the final stage of the rocket burn
failed, so the satellites did not reach their intended orbit.
However, that should not detract from the fact that, for
Spaceport Cornwall, we played our part perfectly. Everything went
well at the spaceport itself. Spaceport Cornwall remains the only
licensed spaceport in Europe, and we are ready to launch
again.
Also, there continues to be great interest in the facilities that
we have, especially the satellite integration clean room—a
world-class facility, and there are not many around the world—and
our space systems operations facility, which is a dedicated
office block on the spaceport site that continues to receive
expressions of interest from people who want to locate there.
Last month, Slingshot Aerospace announced that it will expand
into the UK, with new offices in London and Cornwall, and just
this month Space Ai, the Argentinian blockchain innovators,
announced that it will set up new offices at the spaceport in
Cornwall.
We continue to attract interest from around the world, and there
is still a great deal of interest from launch operators who want
to launch from Cornwall. There are advanced discussions going on
with a number of potential partners that could see us launch
satellites from Cornwall once again in the coming months.
In my view, the UK will struggle to fulfil its space sector
ambitions without launch capabilities, and although it feels like
all the attention is now on Scotland and the vertical launch site
there, as the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr
Carmichael) highlighted, it is important not to forget that in
Cornwall we have a UK launch site that is licensed and ready to
launch.
Mr Carmichael
The hon. Gentleman is making an important point. Inevitably in a
competitive process, that kind of rivalry can emerge, but the
real rivalry is between the UK space industry and the space
industry elsewhere in Europe and the world. There must surely be
a role for horizontal launch in Cornwall and for vertical launch
in Shetland, and also at the Sutherland space site.
I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, who makes the
point that I was literally about to make—it is amazing how often
that happens in debates. I am convinced that there is room for
both. If the UK is really going to play the role that it aims to
play, of being a world-leader in the space industry, we need both
capabilities in the UK—vertical launch and horizontal launch. I
am convinced that horizontal launch will very much be part of the
future of space launch. As satellites become smaller, a
horizontal launch will be the sustainable and more accessible
option for many operators who want to put satellites into
space.
Will the Minister ensure that his Department and the UK Space
Agency do all they can to continue to support Spaceport Cornwall,
and also work with us so that we can secure the partners to
enable us to launch satellites from Cornwall once again in the
months and years to come? The UK has an absolutely huge
opportunity to stay ahead of the rest of Europe. As the right
hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland pointed out, we are in a good
position in the global space race to ensure that the UK can take
advantage of that opportunity.
Spaceport Cornwall is a huge opportunity economically for the UK,
and specifically for Cornwall, to attract investment and create
the highly skilled and well-paid jobs that we desperately need in
the Cornish economy. But for me, this has always been about
something more than that. It has been about inspiring young
Cornish people to believe that they can go and get the
qualifications in science, technology, engineering and maths, and
then have a career in the space industry while still living in
Cornwall. That is what has driven me throughout this whole
process.
With the establishment of the spaceport and the work that the
team have done to engage with schools and colleges, we have
already seen literally thousands of schoolchildren from the
south-west come to see what is going on there and be inspired.
That is so important, because one of the challenges we face with
our young people in Cornwall is a lack of aspiration. There is no
replacement for something on their doorstep that inspires them to
say, “Yes, I can go on, get the qualifications and get a good
career in this sector.” To that end, we were delighted that
Cornwall secured the replica LauncherOne rocket, as a visible and
tangible display: the centrepiece of an education centre that
will inspire our young people and stimulate their interest in the
space industry for generations to come.
There has been a bit of misunderstanding, in that the UK Space
Agency seems to think that we are looking to build a tourist
centre. We are not. It is an education centre, which will attract
visitors and, in particular, inspire young people. Can the
Minister look at what support his Department and the UK Space
Agency can provide to Cornwall, so that we can create a
world-class education centre? It will play a part in inspiring
the next generation of scientists and engineers, not just in
Cornwall and the south-west but across the whole country. We will
need them in the UK if we are going to fulfil our ambition to
continue to be a world leader in space.
These are exciting times. Just as Cornwall has always pioneered
and led the way in new technology, whether that was the steam
engine or Marconi and wireless communication, we again want to
play our part in leading the UK into space launch.
Mrs (in the Chair)
I remind the SNP spokesperson and the shadow Minister that they
have five minutes and the Minister has 10 minutes, because this
is an hour-long debate. I call .
5.02pm
(Glasgow North West)
(SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray; it
is fitting that you are in the Chair today, because you have been
such a champion for Spaceport Cornwall —I hope that that might
get me an extra minute or two—alongside the hon. Member for St
Austell and Newquay (). I want to correct him
slightly. He talked about the failure of the launch, but the
launch was actually successful; the failure came after. We have
to take the positives from that, because this will be a learning
process.
As a former teacher, I know that there are two things that get
children really excited: dinosaurs and space. If we could get
dinosaurs on space rockets, we would have everything sorted! The
space sector is important for technology development, Earth
observation and, increasingly, security and defence. Scotland
plays a key role in that. We have already heard from the hon.
Member for Wyre Forest (), whom I congratulate on
securing this important debate, about the importance of Glasgow
in satellite manufacturing, with companies like Clyde Space and
Alba Orbital. We also have space data analysis in both Glasgow
and Edinburgh, as we have heard from the hon. Member for
Edinburgh West ().
What we are not so good at—and this is not just in Scotland but
across the UK—is selling ourselves: telling people what we are
doing in the industry. In Glasgow, Edinburgh and other places
where there are space sectors, why do we not have big signs with
rockets and propulsion units? That would tell young people that
the space sector is here, alive and vibrant, and that there are
jobs to be had in it. The Government could play a role in
that.
We have heard about the five potential spaceports in Scotland.
The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael)
talked about SaxaVord in Shetland, and we are looking forward to
seeing the first vertical launch from that spaceport. We also
have North Uist, A'Mhoine in Sutherland—the hon. Member for
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross () mentioned that—Machrihanish in
Argyll, and of course Prestwick.
Scotland has great ambition in the sector. There is ability in
our universities, so it is not a surprise or a coincidence that
so many space companies have set up in Scotland. The ambitions
are to capture a £4 billion market share of the sector by 2030
and an increase in employment in the space sector to 20,000.
Those are ambitious targets, but they are achievable. To reach
its full potential, the industry needs proper Government support.
We have rejoined Horizon Europe, which is useful but there have
been years outside Horizon Europe, and space talent now have to
pay visa and NHS fees to come here, which is problematic.
Four years ago, the Government bought a £400 million stake in the
satellite company OneWeb. On talking to the then Science and
Technology Committee in 2021, Chris McLaughlin from OneWeb told
the Committee that by 2024-25 we would be building satellites in
the UK. We have not seen that yet, so I ask the Minister: we have
heard about lots of companies doing great work, but how many jobs
has OneWeb created in the UK for our £400 million stake? What
steps have the Government taken to ensure that OneWeb's second
generation satellites will be built here in the UK? How are the
Government raising awareness of the opportunities in the space
sector, and what representations has the Minister made about
reducing visa and NHS fees for those working in it?
There are real opportunities here. It is right that we inspire
the next generation. To do so, we need physics teachers being
paid proper wages. Without paying them proper wages, they will
take their skills and work elsewhere. We need them here.
Scotland was famously at the heart of the first industrial
revolution. As we enter a new era of industrial revolution,
Scotland will once again play a key role in creating and
developing new technologies in the space sector. I look forward
to seeing more launches across the UK. I agree with the comments
made today: there is room for horizontal and vertical. The more
spaceports we have, the more we become a focus for the space
industry across the world. I am sorry for the time I have taken,
Mrs Murray—your tribute at the start took me extra seconds.
5.07pm
(Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Murray, and
to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (). I congratulate the hon.
Member for Wyre Forest () on securing the debate; as a
member of the all-party parliamentary group for space, I can bear
witness to what an excellent chair he is and what a great
champion he is for the industry.
We all know that space is not just for the stars. Members from
constituencies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England have all
emphasised—I am sure Members from Wales would, too—the potential
and actual contribution that it makes to their economies. The
right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) and the
hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay () particularly emphasised that
point. The space industry impacts everybody and everything, from
climate change monitoring and rural broadband to transport and
agriculture. It is vital for security—just look at Ukraine—and
for telecommunications.
In 2021 I spoke in a debate on space debris, which has been
mentioned. That creates challenges and opportunities that
literally go over most people's heads. Labour's first mission in
Government is to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7,
and space provides key opportunities for growth. Our aerospace
research and development is a long-term endeavour, and our
industrial strength is the result of decades of support by
successive Governments—and Labour would build on that legacy.
Although there remain challenges to overcome, our regulators must
be responsive to innovation in the space sector, from in-orbit
manufacturing, as we have heard about, to space-based renewables.
Labour's regulatory innovation office would rewire regulators to
support innovation, including the space sector. The office would
set and monitor targets for approvals, benchmarked
internationally, and give regulators steers from Labour's
industrial strategy, which would help ensure that space was seen
as an industry and not as a project, as the hon. Member for Wyre
Forest suggested. We would also support the Regulatory Horizons
Council, with deadlines for the Government to respond to its
work. On that subject, when the RHC reports on space, will the
Minister commit now to a timeframe for the response from the
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology? Will he also
set out what specifically the Government are doing to support
pro-innovation regulation for space?
As well as proper regulation, the industry needs greater
stability from this Government, which has been in somewhat short
supply, and not just at the macro level. We have seen the
National Space Council that was set up by one Prime Minister
cancelled by the next, and then reinstated by the one after that.
We left the Galileo Project, and the U-turn on the rival system
cost a further £60 million. The Science, Innovation and
Technology Committee has also expressed concerns over the lack of
coherence in the space strategy, and we heard about the ambiguity
and the harmful speculation over the OneWeb deal after the
Eutelsat merger, and the impact that has had.
The space industrial plan was three months late, and it is
unclear how the Government see space relating to the key
technologies in the science and technology framework, so could
the Minister speak specifically to that point? I obviously
welcome the Minister to his place, but he is the eighth Science
Minister in five years. Does he concede that uncertainty is bad
for business and bad for space? Labour's industrial strategy,
with our statutory industrial strategy council, will provide the
stability and partnership that the industry needs, and enhance
our sovereign capabilities, building on the work of the Satellite
Applications Catapult and the UK Space Agency.
My final point is on skills, which Members have mentioned. The
space industry is so important and it inspires the next
generation of engineers. One of the reasons that I went into
engineering was because I wanted to design spaceships. I never
got to—not yet, but maybe that is still to come. Labour is
proposing a national body that would be called Skills England, to
provide leadership and bring together Government, businesses,
training providers and unions to drive local skills needs.
Expanding opportunities in this industry should create good jobs
for people of all backgrounds. In February I visited Space Park
Leicester, where the university, local government and industry
work together to make space more accessible to all. Labour is
pledging an action plan for diversity in STEM. I hope the
Minister will support that, and I hope that we can see space as
an opportunity for all.
5.13pm
The Minister for Science, Research and Innovation ()
It is a delight to be here under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest () on initiating this
well-attended debate about the all-important UK space industry,
as well as on his commitment to and leadership of the all-party
parliamentary group. I am myself a former member, and I know how
hard-working and formidable his connections are in this domain,
together with my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and
Lunesdale ().
This is a tremendous week for UK space, and I hope all Members
will join me in congratulating astronaut Rosemary Coogan on
achieving her space wings and graduating from astronaut school on
Monday, together with two other British astronauts, and Meganne Christian. We hope
they all have the opportunity in the coming years to leave this
orbit behind and fly into space.
It has been enlightening to hear all the important points that
hon. Members have raised in today's debate, including on the way
in which space and its attendant industries touch every single
part of the United Kingdom. Today's debate encapsulates the
importance of the subject, from Spaceport Cornwall all the way to
the opposite tip of these isles in Shetland and Orkney. There
could not be any better examples than that.
Space is important to everybody and is an important economic
activity. That is why the Government have a clear set of plans,
which I can assure everyone that we are delivering upon daily. In
2021, we published the UK's first ever cross-Government national
space strategy. We are now spending approximately £650 million a
year on space, which is an uplift of more than 70% on the amount
we spent as a nation in 2018-19. I should be clear that this does
not include all the space-related investment and spend on
projects via Copernicus, UKRI and the Ministry of Defence.
(Caithness, Sutherland and
Easter Ross) (LD)
As the Minister knows, work continues apace at the Sutherland
spaceport. It is interesting to note the recent announcement
about the amount of investment that Orbex has attracted. Part of
this is private money; when the markets speak, we listen.
Returning to the remarks made by the hon. Member for Newcastle
upon Tyne Central (), it is about skills. The big challenge for us is how
we will get the seedcorn we need to develop these homegrown
skills. I suggest to the Minister that the Government should
showcase proudly everything they are doing on this front, by
holding space industry fairs—
Mrs (in the Chair)
Order. If this is supposed to be an intervention, it must be
short.
Could I recommend that consideration is given to this in various
parts, such as Caithness in my constituency?
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to champion the spaceport
in his constituency and to mention the importance of what is
called private space, where companies such as Orbex are
pioneering new ways of reaching for the stars. A number of hon.
Members have also pointed out the significance of space in making
an economic contribution and inspiring future generations. I will
take away the hon. Gentleman's wonderful suggestion of a space
youth fair—let us see what we can do together with the UK Space
Agency. My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay
() made exactly the same point
about Spaceport Cornwall.
It is often pointed out that the United Kingdom could be more
joined up in its space endeavours. The space council, in
whichever iteration, brings together other Departments in orbit
with the Ministry of Defence so that we can continue to punch
above our weight. We have recently opened a joint space command
centre for both civilian and military space.
My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay mentioned
his hard work before Spaceport Cornwall was even established,
which is huge testimony to the work he does for his constituents
across north Cornwall. He also mentioned Goonhilly and the very
significant space cluster that exists in Cornwall. The Government
remain extremely supportive of Spaceport Cornwall and all its
endeavours, and the point is very well made about the launch
capability of the United Kingdom, which I talk about to both the
UK Space Agency and the Ministry of Defence in these uncertain
times.
Moving to the other end of these isles, the right hon. Member for
Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) talked about Shetland's
spaceport. It does indeed have formidable natural advantages, and
so inspired by the opportunity, the Government resolve to do
everything they can. That is why my right hon. Friend the
Chancellor so significantly put an investment into SaxaVord,
subject to reaching acceptable terms. In this very important week
for defence spending, I offer this small vignette: the Labour
party cut defence and closed RAF Saxa Vord, while this
Conservative Government are investing in the future of Shetland.
I hope that does not provoke an intervention from the hon. Member
for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (). [Interruption.] It is a fact. Facts sometimes can
be provocative, but they are nevertheless facts.
We are bringing together many UK assets in space in the Harwell
science and innovation campus space cluster. While it is also a
significant contribution to levelling up, we have published not
just the space industrial plan but plans for space clusters and
space investment funds. I believe that the hon. Member for
Newcastle upon Tyne Central and myself will both be speaking at
the North West Space Cluster in June, which will give us both an
opportunity to commit to the future of space in that important
region of the United Kingdom. As my hon. Friend the Member for
Wyre Forest raised a point about , space is at the heart of the
comparative advantage and the productivity of this nation.
It is a busy world in space. It is going to be a banner year. We
hope to see space launches from European soil from the first
time. Just this week, the UK Space Agency announced an £8 million
investment in the UK innovation & science seed fund. When my
hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest opened the debate, he
talked about the importance of getting capital to flow and of the
connection with the City of London and finance. I hope that £8
million at the earliest stage—the seed and even the pre-seed
stage—of the lifecycle could make a real contribution to growing
the space supply chain and skills.
We will be responding to the Regulatory Horizons Council report
on space well within the allotted timeframe. Before we break for
the summer we will be publishing the space workforce skills plan,
which the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central raised.
That is something very close to my heart and, I suspect, to the
hearts of other Members. The hon. Member for Strangford () has left the Chamber, but Northern Ireland, as with
all the regions, is an important part of the space sector. Its
legacy and history in aerospace engineering is something that I
firmly hope we can continue to bring to bear.
Time is running out and there is so much more we could talk
about. We are off to the European Space Agency, and our
commitment to that body remains as strong as ever.
The Minister has not mentioned visa fees for space experts coming
here, nor has he mentioned OneWeb.
I would be delighted if the hon. Lady wanted to apply for another
debate. I can see that there is a significant appetite to discuss
some of these issues. The Government are very committed to
maximising the economic and strategic advantage of OneWeb. It is
a company that is based here. I have visited it just down the
road in Shepherd's Bush—I think it is still called Shepherd's
Bush. The new White City campus is where thousands of satellites,
licensed and regulated out of the UK, are being flown as we speak
and delivering all sorts of contributions to society. I am very
supportive of the hon. Lady's contribution to science, so I would
love to engage further when we have more time. Mrs Murray is
looking at me to say, “Hurry up.”
We will continue to work across this House through organisations
such as the all-party parliamentary group, with industry, with
the supply chain, and with our partners internationally, both
through multilateral forums such as the European Space Agency and
bilaterally. We will do all that with the objective of ensuring
that the United Kingdom remains a strong spacefaring nation, and
that the citizens of this country benefit from the prosperity and
the inspiration that comes with space.
5.24pm
Thank you for overseeing this debate, Mrs Murray. It has been
very enlightening, and I am conscious that Scotland is very well
represented here. The space industry is fantastic, and I am
grateful to the Minister for raising the points he did.
Launch is an interesting area: it is about logistics, but it is
the inspirational path that people will look at. When we see
rockets launching into space from the United Kingdom, that will
be the point when everybody will get incredibly excited. I am
grateful that we are doing extraordinarily well on space
licensing here with the Civil Aviation Authority.
We have a fantastic opportunity in the space sector. I am an
evangelist for the whole sector, and I think it is wonderful. I
am grateful to the Minister for giving a commitment on the amount
of money that will be invested into the UK space sector. That is
absolutely crucial. Space is very difficult; it is very tricky.
Getting things working in space requires a lot of investment in
getting it up there. Commitment from the UK Government is exactly
what we need to de-risk it and generate more private capital
coming into the sector. Ultimately, we want it to be sponsored
and funded entirely privately, unless the UK Government are a
customer. We can get there, but the sector needs help to get that
far.
I am conscious that we are about to have a bell for a vote any
second now. Thank you very much, Mrs Murray.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the UK space industry.
|
