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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of a Kessler Syndrome type of occurrence in space on the UK's (a) national security, (b) domestic and international defence operations, (c) economy, (d) communications capability, (e) scientific research capability, (f) weather forecasting, (g) aviation and shipping sectors, (h) GPS needs; and what assessment the Government has made of the level of risk of an event of that kind occurring.

The UK Space Agency, as an executive Agency of BEIS, is the lead department assessing and mitigating space-based risks to Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), covering the aspects including those highlighted in (a) to (h). There are heavy dependencies between the CNI sectors such as defence operations, communications, aviation and shipping, which we are engaged in identifying as well as working to ensure the impact of disruptions to space services is understood and mitigated. A Kessler Syndrome incident is a theoretical risk which has the potential to significantly impact operational services, up to and including a total loss. This has never been experienced, but we are working to understand the likelihood, assess the impacts and mitigate the risk.

The Government is committed to regularly reviewing and assessing risks to ensure that they are accurately prioritised in our resilience framework. Our Space Surveillance and Tracking function is dedicated to reducing the risk from orbital hazards. We supplement US data with UK sensors and analysis to monitor orbital collisions and other events, working in conjunction with MOD Space Operations Centre. We also support several programmes and initiatives looking at options for safely removing orbital debris.