Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in identifying a UK satellite-based augmentation system to replace the functionality of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service; and whether the analysis of the potential benefits of such a system, commissioned from PA Consulting over a year ago, has been completed and, if so, whether they will place a copy of that work in the Library of the House.
On 18 October 2023 the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) published a Government Policy Framework for Greater Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Resilience. The Framework includes a commitment to develop a proposal for a UK Precise Point Positioning Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) to replace the UK’s use of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, monitor Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and enable GNSS-dependent high accuracy positioning for autonomous and precision uses. The work to develop this proposal is currently under way. The specific analysis delivered by PA Consulting referred to in the question is an interim and partial piece of research, contributing as one input to policy development work, which is being taken forward on a cross-Government basis, coordinated by DSIT. It will be superseded by more complete analysis of the business case for Government action in this space and therefore the report will not be placed in the Library of the House.