OneWeb

Baroness Falkner of Margravine Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan]

As I have said, given commercial considerations, I am unable to provide further detail on ongoing discussions, but we will be discussing the future funding of the business, and the merits of bringing in additional shareholders, with our partners in due course.

[Baroness Falkner of Margravine (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome the Government’s stake in OneWeb. It will help deliver high-speed broadband in the UK and the rest of the world. On the issue of risk, does the Minister agree that anyone setting up frontier firms knows that there is no gain without risk?

Turning to the golden share, the Minister said that national security was the consideration. What about a company’s record on theft of intellectual property, abuse of the workforce through modern slavery and other anti-competitive practices? Will they also be taken into account?

[Lord Callanan]

We will use our golden share to full advantage for the British taxpayer. We will take all those considerations into account, but primarily national security.