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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will pursue an expanded national space programme alongside the UK's contribution to the European Space Agency.

The UK obtains excellent value from its investment as a member of the European Space Agency (ESA), allowing UK scientists to engage in world-class science in earth observation, space science, exploration, robotics and microgravity research, and providing significant commercial opportunities for UK industry.

The UK’s investment in ESA enables our involvement in research programmes like the Rosetta-Philae mission (the first ever landing on a comet) and the GAIA mission (mapping the galaxy in an unprecedented level of detail.

In addition to our investments through ESA, the UK also funds a National Programme, whose budget has grown from around £20m p.a. when the Agency was established on 1^st April 2011, to £88m p.a..

The Government protected funding for space in cash terms in the recent spending review, and both our investment in ESA, and our National Space Programme, support the development of the UK space sector, which is growing at a much faster rate than the economy as a whole.