Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on developing a sovereign defence space capability in the United Kingdom; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of this initiative on (a) national security and (b) military operations in space.

The Ministry of Defence is working closely with other Departments to develop sovereign space capabilities, and with our Allies and partners.

We use the 'own-access-collaborate' framework to identify where the UK must own sovereign capabilities, access services from the commercial sector, or collaborate with our Allies and partners to secure military capabilities. This is achieved through the SKYNET military satellite communications programme and, most recently, the development of UK sovereign earth observation capabilities.