Britain is in a position to be a leading international partner in the space sector - Simon Lightwood

To achieve our ambition, the Government has invested more than £57m through the LaunchUK programme to grow new UK markets for small satellite launch and sub-orbital spaceflight.

The UK has one of the most advanced and trusted modern space regulatory frameworks in the world. On October 8, the Secretary of State for DSIT announced the new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), to reduce the burden of red tape and speed up access to new technologies that improve our daily lives. The RIO has made space one of its top priorities, and we look forward to working with it on our wider regulatory reforms to enable innovation.

This Government is implementing a series of space regulatory reforms stemming from the recommendations published in the space regulatory review in May 2024. The Government has worked with the sector to determine a prioritised approach to the reforms, to maximise the growth and innovation potential for the sector.

One recommendation involves the implementation of a regulatory sandbox to stress-test the regulatory framework for enabling rendezvous proximity operations. The sandbox commenced in October 2024, with stage one due to be complete in March 2025, providing vital recommendations to enable the growth of these novel missions and to strengthen the UK’s capabilities.

We are also exploring financial tools, incentives and market access schemes that promote sustainable activities and encourage self-investment, inward investment and support a level playing field for UK companies. Alongside the regulatory reform package, work is under way to develop a range of new innovative regulatory measures to support the growth of the UK sector, new mission types and to incentivise the uptake of space sustainability measures.

The Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill will amend two sections of the Space Industry Act 2018 to provide legal certainty that all spaceflight operator licences must include a limit on the amount of the operator’s liability to the Government under section 36 of the 2018 Act. This short, but crucial Bill will go ‘far, far away’ to encourage much-needed investment into the sector.

This Government has made clear that unlocking growth is vital to rebuilding the UK and supporting high-tech jobs, which unlocks investment and improves living standards across the country.

The space sector is hugely valuable to the UK’s economy. It is worth more than £18.9bn and directly employs more than 52,000 people. It supports more than 126,000 jobs across the supply chain and at least £346bn of the UK’s GDP is supported by satellite services, such as navigation, metrology, communications and Earth observation.

It is important that the UK builds on the successes of an already thriving and dynamic space sector.

An abridged version of a speech by Simon Lightwood, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport and MP for Wakefield and Rothwell, in Parliament.