Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 15
Third Report - Defence Space: through adversity to the stars?
Published 19 Oct 2022
Paragraph 122
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)
Space acquisitions require an innovative and flexible approach to procurement, but the MoD will need to balance this against ensuring value for money for the taxpayer. This will not be an easy task, and the Department’s endemic failure to robustly manage major projects does not inspire confidence that they will be able to meet this challenge. The Department must meet its commitment to set out clear milestones for the significant infrastructure projects announced in the Defence Space Strategy by the end of this financial year. Timescales should also be included, and progress should be reported every six months. We will write to the Comptroller and Auditor General asking him to increase his oversight of these new projects to provide Defence Space: through adversity to the stars? 39 additional assurance and we intend to scrutinise their progress closely. In this emerging domain the Ministry of Defence has a real opportunity to learn from its past failings: history must not be repeated. The Department must meet its commitment to set out clear milestones for the significant infrastructure projects announced in the Defence Space Strategy by the end of this financial year. Timescales should also be included, and progress should be reported every six months.
From: Defence Committee, Third Report - Defence Space: through adversity to the stars? (HC 182), paragraph 122, 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.