Source · Select Committees · Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Not Addressed
Direct government control of UK Space Agency must safeguard its autonomy and agility
Conclusion
We therefore cautiously welcome the Government’s decision to take direct control of the UK Space Agency, which signals a clear intent to strengthen coordination across Government, to support the sector’s development. If implemented well, this move could be a step in the right direction towards reducing bureaucracy and streamlining the sector’s experience of interacting with Government. However, the Department will need to ensure the change does not result in any loss of autonomy, proactivity or agility for the Agency. We hope to see this centralised oversight drive greater strategic alignment of policy and investment for the UK’s space sector. (Conclusion, Paragraph 103)
Government Response Summary
The government's response focuses on general coordination across departments and existing ministerial forums, but does not address the committee's specific concerns about ensuring the UK Space Agency's autonomy, proactivity, and agility under new direct control.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
• The Government remains committed to ensuring that space activity remains coordinated across all interested departments, with multiple levels of governance and lines of communication in place beyond the Cabinet itself. Ministers meet regularly as required to discuss space policy issues, including through meetings of a Space Ministerial Forum of relevant responsible ministers. • The Government has not committed to establishing a new specific Cabinet committee for space. The Prime Minister decides, on the advice of the Cabinet Secretary, the overall structure of the Cabinet committee system, including the creation of any new committees and their terms of reference. A list of the current committees, their terms of reference and the ministers who sit on them is available on gov.uk. Cabinet committees take collective decisions on behalf of Cabinet as relevant to their Terms of Reference. • It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees, including how often they have met and who attended and their minutes, is not normally shared publicly. We also cannot commit to publishing the meeting schedules and minutes of the Space Ministerial Forum, to enable full and frank discussion of policy issues between ministers.