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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to develop a UK alternative to participation in the Galileo satellite navigation programme.

The UK’s preference is to remain involved in the Galileo programme and we are continuing in our negotiations with the European Union on that basis. However, as a responsible Government, we need to look at alternatives to meet our national security, strategic and industrial requirements.

As such, on 29 August, the Government announced that we are investing £92m of Brexit readiness money on developing an independent satellite system. The study will inform the decision to create the system as an alternative to Galileo should an acceptable agreement for continued UK participation in Galileo not be possible.