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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 7 December 2018 (HL11885), whether the UK Space Agency has yet developed options for a UK Navigation Satellite System; if so, (1) what those options are, and (2) whether their costs are within the £92 million set aside for the Engineering and Design studies.

The Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Programme (SBPP) is on track and is continuing to explore innovative ways of delivering space-based Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) services to the UK. The programme will advise on options to Government for a space-based solution to improve our PNT resilience, as part of a mix of technologies, in November this year.

SBPP follows on from the work of the UK Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Programme, which concluded in September 2020. The cost of this programme was contained within the £92m allocated. In conjunction with industry, the GNSS programme developed detailed designs for a Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) PNT satellite system. SBPP is now looking at a broader set of innovative concepts for securing global space-based PNT services, to meet the resilience needs of our Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and wider economic and domestic users.