Asked by: Lord Collins of Highbury (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish an assessment of the (1) global security, and (2) national security, impact of the agreement in the form of an exchange of notes between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the United States of America on Technology Safeguards associated with United States Participation in Space Launches from the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Securing global security and national security through non-proliferation are intrinsic objectives of the Technology Safeguards Agreement, which seeks to ensure that sensitive space launch technology is protected and may not be accessed by unauthorised parties.
It is fully consistent with obligations under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), to which the United Kingdom and the United States are founding members, and with the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, to which the United Kingdom and United States are subscribing states.
The UK’s observance of international obligations and commitments, in particular in regard to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of their delivery, through its commitments to the multilateral export control regimes, which include the MTCR, and other mechanisms such as the Hague Code of Conduct, has been UK Government policy for many years and was reaffirmed in the written statement to Parliament by the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skill, Dr Vince Cable, on the 25th March 2014. In addition, the Government’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy presented to Parliament by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister by Command Paper 203 (March 2021) highlighted the UK’s continued commitment and importance of safeguarding access to advance sensitive technologies to both State and non-State actors.
Asked by: Lord Collins of Highbury (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards implementing the agreement in the form of an exchange of notes with the government of the United States of America on Technology Safeguards associated with United States Participation in Space Launches from the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Agreement will be enacted after the Space Industry Regulations 2021, currently before Parliament, are in force. The Space Industry Regulations 2021 provide powers for the government to realise its obligations under the Agreement.