My Lords, in introducing the first amendment, I mentioned the good work that successive Governments did to give the British space industry a boost. I did not say—but it was in my notes, and I am prompted by seeing him in his place—that the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, played a special part in that. The space industry made real progress during the time he had responsibility for it under the coalition Government.
This is more of an amendment to the Bill itself and it challenges the Government to respond to a simple question posed by the Commons Science and Technology Committee: where is the clear evidence that there is demand for a UK-located spaceport? We are going to a great deal of trouble to put into law regulations for these developments yet, as that committee mentioned, the Government have not quantified the financial benefits of a new regulatory framework for spaceflight. This is a probing amendment to see what work the Government have done on the concept of spaceports.
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There is no doubt that we want to be part of this industry. As we know from our discussions on the Data Protection Bill, demand for data is growing
globally and the satellite industry is uniquely positioned to meet the need to collect and communicate data around the world. Some 25% of the world’s communications satellites are built in the UK, which is particularly successful in developing small satellites. These have evolved from being simple technology demonstrators to highly capable operating vehicles. Hand in hand with these developments, new materials such as graphene and advances in high-value manufacturing offer the prospect of carrying secondary structures and payloads, which will be smaller and lighter without compromising the ability to deliver into orbit.
The space sector has an exciting story to tell. The more the Government can give us the facts as they know them, the more momentum will be created behind this new space age. I beg to move.