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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to encourage companies to capitalise on markets that make use of satellite data, such as maritime surveillance and satellite broadband.

The industry-led Space Innovation and Growth Strategy set out that space services and applications are likely to provide the majority of future growth in the sector. Maritime surveillance and satellite broadband were highlighted in this strategy as priority growth opportunities, and the UK Space Agency has been working with industry to remove barriers to growth and develop specific opportunities in these areas.

In 2013, Innovate UK established the Satellite Applications Catapult specifically to help UK industry to develop applications and services based on space data and grasp these new opportunities. The UK Space Agency’s Space for Smarter Government Programme works across Government to promote the intelligent use of space data. An outcome from that programme is the use of satellite broadband to support the NHS’s mobile breast-cancer screening services.