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

To ask His Majesty's Government what help they are providing to the UK space industry; in particular, in regards to space launches.

We are committed to growing the UK space sector more broadly and deliver our National Space Strategy ambitions, including by recently investing £1.59 billion in European Space Agency (ESA) programmes. BEIS and MoD are providing more than £8bn over the next decade.

This includes the £50 million available to grow new UK markets for small satellite launch and sub-orbital spaceflight.

This includes:

• £31.5 million to help establish vertical launch services from Scotland;
• Up to £1.3 million to develop business plans for small satellite launch and sub-orbital flight from airports in Machrihanish, Snowdonia and Cornwall;
• £11.3 million as part of £20 million central and local government funding to support horizontal launch by Virgin Orbit from Spaceport Cornwall.