The Space Economy (UK Engagement with Space Committee Report)
House of Lords · Lords Chamber · 9 Jul 2026 · 19 speeches · Official Report
Motion to Take Note
Moved by
That this House takes note of the Report from the UK Engagement with Space Committee The Space Economy: Act Now or Lose Out (HL Paper 190, Session 2024-26).
My Lords, it is with great pride that I introduce this debate on the report The Space Economy : Act N ow or L ose O ut . The title was chosen to capture the urgency with which the committee believes government and others should act. I am sure this overarching message will be reinforced in the course of this debate. At the outset, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her willingness to engage with the report and the debate. I believe she is enthusiastic for what can be done. I look forward to hearing that enthusiasm turned into concrete actions in her response and in the future. I begin my remarks by paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, who is not in his place but who was the instigator of this inquiry. I am very grateful to him for proposing and championing that your Lordships needed to consider our relationship to and work in space. The committee was fortunate to have such a brilliant team of clerks and advisers, who made this report come alive. It astonishes me how they were able to guide us through such a challenging subject, keeping us within the framework of a report based on evidence but never curbing our enthusiasm for the subject, and apparently becoming experts on the subjects within days of being given the task of supporting our work. Sabrina, Steph, Scott-you are truly fantastic. Sarah, thank you for your work in communications. Michelle, we could not have asked for a better external adviser. On behalf of the committee, thank you. Most of all, I...
My Lords, I congratulate the committee on an excellent report, which is a magisterial review of the issues in space policy that also brings out the opportunities for us. I declare an interest as chair of SaxaVord spaceport, which has already been referred to. Before that, as chair of the UK Space Agency, I gave evidence to the committee about the agency. My history here is that, when I arrived as a Minister in 2010, space was one of my responsibilities and I inherited plans from the previous Labour Government-from the excellent noble Lord, Lord Drayson-to create a new UK space agency as an arm’s-length body. So the plans were from the previous Labour Government and I implemented them. In my final year as chair of the UK Space Agency, I loyally implemented the new Labour Government’s plans to get rid of it as an arm’s-length body. Those are the ups and downs of politics, of course, as many in this House are aware. In the interim, a decision happened several years ago to split policy in the department from operations in the agency. That model was not working. It is absolutely right to bring together policy and operations. If that is inside DSIT, with its broader links to other departments, so be it, and I wish all success to the new Space Agency, once again bringing all those roles together. But I hope the Minister will be able to assure the House that real, deep technological expertise within the Space Agency will be preserved, even within the Whitehall department. A key...
My Lords, it was a privilege to be a member of the UK Engagement with Space Committee, served so well by its two clerks, Sabrina Asghar and Steph Coulter, and expertly chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady of Ashton of Upholland. I realised that she was going to be a wonderful chair when she persuaded our first witness to join her and some members of the committee to drink champagne immediately after his appearance before our committee. Only later did it become clear that Professor Brian Cox’s appearance before our committee had coincided with his birthday. Apart from the noble Lord, Lord Booth-Smith-and here, I may be disagreeing with the chair-all members of the committee could recall seeing the moon landing on TV in August 1969. But, despite having witnessed this extraordinary event for humankind, or perhaps because we had done so, we were still not fully aware of the importance of space to the UK economy, nor of the role it plays in the UK’s defence and national security. Those two words, “dual use”, featured regularly in the evidence presented by our witnesses. It was not possible for us to ascertain how well co-ordination between DSIT and MoD worked to deliver cross-governmental space policy. It is my view that the DSIT Minister responsible for space at the time did not manage to convince the committee that he was fully aware of the detail of the Ministry of Defence’s space plans. Yet, we now know that the long-awaited defence investment plan has allocated £3.2 billion...
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton of Upholland, and the whole committee for this extremely enthusiastic report. I suspect I will be taking a different perspective from every other speaker in this debate because I am going to start from down here on solid earth-a planet that we have comprehensively trashed and where we have exceeded seven of our nine planetary boundaries as identified by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. We talk about what is happening up in space, but what we do up there has huge impacts down here on earth. I start from the proposition that Britain’s place in space, both the activity happening from our own land and our global diplomatic and other efforts, needs to keep that in mind. There are useful things that we can do from space. We can see how fast the Amazon is being destroyed and how fast the peat-lands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are suffering. We can watch the depletion of water aquifers. All these things are important for us to understand what we are doing, and we need to use space to do that, but we also do not have to do everything we possibly could do in space. We have choices, just as we have choices about whether we use huge amounts of energy and water for data centres for so-called artificial intelligence. We need to think before we act. Some noble Lords may recall the cautionary tale of the UK’s first military satellite, Skynet 1A. It was launched in 1969 but in the mid-1970s it was deliberately moved because it was...
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness and to participate in this debate, as indeed it was a pleasure to be part of the committee under the superb chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton. We are able to say that, for a sessional committee, we produced something of great substance in a very short space of time. It is only because of the support, the volumes of evidence that we received and the enthusiasm with which people supplied us with it, and because of our secretariat, that we were able to achieve that, and we did so with great enjoyment. I hope to replicate the enthusiasm and enjoyment I had from being part of the committee with other committees. I draw attention to my interest, which bears upon my views on the report. Many years ago, in 1981, I was in the space branch of the Department of Trade and Industry, as it then was. We were writing space policy-we did both policy and operations in those days-and we chose not to take part in future space transport systems, such as Ariane, which is one of the major European Space Agency programmes. Instead, we chose to focus on satellite communications and earth observation, and subsequent decades demonstrated that the UK industrial and economic return from that investment was far in excess of what was subsequently able to be achieved by France, for example, through its investment in Ariane. I say to my noble friend that French Guiana is part of France. The French would be very unhappy at the...
My Lords, it is a pleasure to contribute to this debate on the report of the UK Engagement with Space Committee. Before turning to the substance of the report, I pay tribute to our chair, the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton of Upholland, my fellow committee members and our wonderful clerks, Sabrina and Scott. This was one of those inquiries where the process itself was immensely rewarding. We embarked upon it not as experts in the field but as colleagues united by a desire to learn, a fascination with the opportunities and challenges of space, and a shared commitment to producing a report that could make a meaningful contribution to policy. What we lacked in technical expertise we certainly made up for in curiosity, enthusiasm and a genuine passion for the subject. I thank the many witnesses who gave evidence. Their generosity with their time, knowledge and experience made this a remarkable journey of discovery for us all and greatly enriched our understanding of the issues before us. The report covers a wide range of important matters, from skills and regulation to investment, innovation and international co-operation. All deserve careful consideration. However, today I will focus on what I believe is one of the most strategically important issues facing the United Kingdom space sector: sovereign launch capability. Space is no longer the preserve of scientists and explorers but an essential component of our economic prosperity, national security and daily lives. As geopolitical...
My Lords, what a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness and to take part in this debate. I thank my noble friend Lady Ashton for the masterful way she introduced the report; she made every single point that I had jotted down to say myself. I want to thank all my fellow members of the committee, because it was a very happy committee and we were very enthusiastic and conscientious about the work that we did. I reread our report in the run-up to this debate. It is a really good report, and I think it will last the test of time because space is an area for the future. I also want to thank our excellent staff. We had an extremely interesting visit to the Harwell campus, and we had some very interesting witnesses giving evidence to us, including some that people have heard of, such as Brian Cox and Tim Peake. I also want to mention Professors Edhem, Wheeler, and Dougherty, because they also gave evidence, as did many others. It is hard to know the first thing to say. I wish there were more Members in the Chamber because it would be very educative for them. The first thing to say about space is that it is anything but empty. Figure 4 in our report shows the exponential growth of satellites in the last few years. People may not realise just how many there are. It brings the problem of space debris, which I will come back to. There are some 50,000 tracked items of debris and, some have suggested, up to 1 million other items that are small, but big enough to do real damage. The...
My Lords, by the time you get to your feet and nine people have already spoken, an awful lot of things that you would want to say have already been covered. I repeat again that it was a delight and fun to be on the committee, which was charmingly chaired, and I thank the clerks. Seeing the committee’s members all present together is a bit like getting the band back together. There is a case for reconstituting ourselves-I do not know whether that is remotely possible, but it is something I raise. As has been said, the subtitle of the committee’s report is “Act Now or Lose Out”, and nothing could be more accurate. It is important that the Government take on board the extremely rapid growth that is happening on the world stage in relation to space development. We have world-leading experience and expertise, along with a commitment across our science sector and our academic sector. However, we must do everything we can to maximise and apply those skills to see that the sector grows. It is said that the global space sector is currently valued at over $500 billion and is expected to grow significantly, at an average of about 7% to 8% a year. That is an enormous rate of growth. As a nation, we cannot miss out on this opportunity. The Government have made it clear that they are committed to economic growth. Space is an ideal sector to promote, and it provides huge scope for such growth. However, I am very concerned, as I note from the recent D efence I nvestment P lan , published...
My Lords, it was a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Shamash, and to serve alongside him and all the other very enthusiastic members of the space committee-and, indeed, to serve under the excellent chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton of Upholland. I congratulate her not just on her excellent introduction to this debate but on leading us to produce our report. I join her and other noble Lords in thanking the committee staff for their hard work and all those who gave evidence to us, both oral and written, throughout our inquiry. If nothing else, the committee has done the House a considerable service in highlighting both the opportunities presented by the UK’s space economy and the risks of failing to seize them. As has already been mentioned by several noble Lords, the title of our report, Act Now or Lose Out , captures this challenge perfectly. I welcome the growing recognition across government that space is now a strategic capability. Although our committee did not major on defence in the context of the UK space sector-perhaps to some mild frustration expressed by my noble friend Lord Lansley-it is worth nothing that the strategic defence review makes it clear that satellites are critical national infrastructure. We have already heard from others that satellites underpin our communications, navigation, financial services, energy networks and national defence. In the 21st century, sovereign satellite capability is no less important to our resilience...
My Lords, as a former member of the committee-all of us, I suppose, could be described as space cadets-I warmly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton of Upholland, for her superb chairing of the committee and for her inspiring introduction today. I join her and other members of the committee in thanking all the staff and advisers to the committee, and all our evidence givers, including the celebrities that the noble Baroness mentioned. I also thank all noble Lords who have contributed so enthusiastically to this extremely illuminating debate. As the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell of Beeston, said, the title of the report absolutely captures the challenge. It serves as both a stark warning and a brilliant road map for our future. As we have heard today, the UK space sector is an invaluable national asset. It generates nearly £19 billion a year in income, directly employs over 52,000 people in highly skilled jobs and underpins approximately 18% of our entire GDP-some £364 billion. We possess immense comparative strengths that we must champion, from Glasgow, which builds more small satellites than anywhere else outside California, to our pioneering in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing-ISAM-sector. We also boast unique downstream advantages, with the City of London primed to be the pre-eminent global centre for space finance, law and insurance. As we have heard today, the UK space sector is an invaluable national asset, but we must not be complacent: the hard data shows...
My Lords, I too begin by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton of Upholland, and every member of the committee for this powerful and timely report, although I must say that my principal reaction is one of envy-I rather wish I had been on the committee. The report makes the genuinely compelling case that space policy is central both to our national security and to our future prosperity. The space economy does not get the attention it deserves, either in this House, as the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, has pointed out, or with the public more generally, so I am delighted that, through this report and in this excellent debate, we have some small chance to address that. The report reminds us that much of modern life depends on space technologies. Many of us enjoy these technologies without even realising this. From satellite navigation, banking systems and weather forecasting to logistics, these capabilities underpin a significant portion of our economy. I was really struck by the estimate that some 18% of UK GDP relies on satellite services alone. The committee is right to argue that Britain possesses many strengths and great potential in this area. We boast world-class universities, innovative companies, growing launch capability, and internationally respected scientific expertise. But the question before us today is whether we have the strategic focus needed to realise and unleash our collective vast potential. We on these Benches welcome the Government’s recognition...
My Lords, I am pleased to respond for the Government. I thank my noble friend Lady Ashton of Upholland for securing this debate and for her committee’s important report on this matter. I also thank the chair for her expert leadership on the very thorough and seemingly enjoyable work that the committee undertook. It is a particular pleasure to have heard the appreciation across your Lordships’ House for the importance of the space sector today and the enormous potential it holds for the future. As we have heard, the space dimension of our economy is coming to the fore. The UK has a strong space sector, with over twice the UK’s average productivity and global satellite services underpinning nearly 18% of the UK’s GDP. Beyond our financial services and well-known uses in telecommunications, space technology is helping farmers increase crop yields and enabling faster, more effective responses to natural disasters such as floods. As we have heard, it is a sector that contributes over £18 billion to the UK economy and employs over 55,000 highly qualified people. Over the past year, I have had the pleasure of meeting many of the industrial and scientific partners who make up this sector. The sector relies on a strong partnership with government. Every pound invested by the Government through the European Space Agency sees a £7.49 return into the UK economy. In 2024-25 alone, UK Space Agency activity is estimated to have catalysed £2.2 billion in investment and revenue across the UK...
Before the Minister sits down, at several points in the Government’s response to the Select Committee’s report, they say that more detail will come forward in the “spring space publication”-not my language, the Government’s. The Minister has not said when we might expect to see that important spring space publication.
I set out earlier this year, in a speech to the Space-Comm Expo, a number of elements that are important for taking forward the measures envisaged in the space strategy, which include the £500 million of funding. We have taken action in many other areas set out in that report, since it was published and since our response to it. The noble Lord is right: we wish to bring it all together, and we are working to do so. Unfortunately, we will not be able to publish it before the Summer Recess. We hope to do so as soon as possible after that.
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who participated in this debate and my noble friend the Minister for her response. It is clear from everything that has been said that we have real opportunities in economic growth, world leadership and resolving problems, both in space and on earth. It is also clear that we need to get on with it.
Motion agreed.