Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 2
Third Report - Defence Space: through adversity to the stars?
Published 19 Oct 2022
Paragraph 28
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee Space Defence All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Even before these recent developments, which seem to be a backward step, cross- Whitehall governance on space lacked sufficient clarity and direction. The delays to publication of the National and Defence Space Strategies frustrated industry and other stakeholders and suggest that despite the previous Prime Minister’s stated personal commitment to making the UK “a meaningful player in space”, the Government is currently unable to drive changes through at pace, or even to meet its own deadlines. Nowhere is this better illustrated than by the continued delay and inertia surrounding space-based position, navigation and timing services, which we examine in detail later in this report.
From: Defence Committee, Third Report - Defence Space: through adversity to the stars? (HC 182), paragraph 28, 19 October 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 January 2023.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out how space governance, skills, space domain awareness, navigation, procurement and international work are being taken forward, without adopting the Committee's call for a Minister for Space within the Cabinet Office.
- On governance, it says discussions on space "will be taken by the most relevant Cabinet Committee", and that the Space Directorate's transition into "extant structures" is part of integrating space into business as usual.
- On skills, it says a new foundational space course will be integrated across all Defence entry-level training "next year", and that an Invitation to Tender for the UK Space Academy will be initiated before the end of March 2023.
- On navigation, it says a BEIS PNT project team "will be completed by Spring 2023" and will help decide next steps. It says the Space-based PNT Programme "successfully concluded", with its analysis to be considered by that team.
- On space domain awareness, it states Defence is investing "£85 million over ten years" and that it expects to publish capability goals, including for SDA, in early 2023.