Oral Answers to Questions

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Artificial Intelligence (Kanishka Narayan)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his advocacy and leadership on this matter over the course of the last many weeks. I have mentioned already this week that I want to work with parliamentarians across the House, including him and members of his Committee, on ideas for the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill, looking in particular at AI security protections.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

A lot of work is being done in Scotland—in Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere—to develop a space culture, with space technology and satellite technology. With the controversy this week about potential interference in the Ukrainian war effort using satellite technology, do the Government intend to step up investment and support for research and development in this area, in the interests of our own national security?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I was very much hoping for a space question, so I am very grateful to the hon. Lady. Space technology is one of the most exciting and fundamental horizontal technologies for our economy; I recently attended the International Space Summit in Paris to hear about that. We have launched our space strategy, and Scotland is key to that. She will know about the SaxaVord launch capacity investment. I assure her that we will keep her involved in the progress of this successful strategy.