Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the business case for the Government's investment in Oneweb is affected by the decision to choose Starlink to trial broadband satellite connectivity.

The business case for the Government’s investment in OneWeb is not affected by the recent Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announcement regarding some initial limited satellite broadband trials in the UK. The decision was based on the immediate availability of equipment that had a suitably unobtrusive size for the first trial sites and could be deployed quickly at low cost. DCMS remain in discussions with OneWeb on supporting more complex trial sites and expect that OneWeb equipment will be tested as part of this trial in the future.