Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with the UK permanent representative to the UN on the feasibility of initiating global governance arrangements limiting the use of anti-satellite weaponry including (a) direct ascent anti-satellite missiles, (b) co-orbital anti-satellite weaponry and (c) ground or space-based directed energy weapons.

The United Kingdom is playing a leading role on both space security and space sustainability. We work through UK Missions in New York, Geneva and Vienna. The United Kingdom is leading discussions on responsible space behaviours, particularly at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) but also at the Conference on Disarmament and UN Disarmament Commission, that aim to reduce the risks of miscalculation and escalation leading to conflict. In 2020 at UNGA the UK ran a resolution calling for a report by the UN Secretary-General on "Reducing Space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviour" and submitted our views to https://www.un.org/disarmament/topics/outerspace-sg-report-outer-space-2021/ in April 2021, including on counterspace weapons. In December 2021 UNGA adopted the UK-led follow-on resolution to set up an Open Ended Working Group.