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UK Space Policy

I do not intend to keep the Chamber for long. I am delighted that the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner) secured this debate, for which several of us applied. It is important that we have this brief debate because it is a considerable time since we have had a chance to debate space. With the important decisions coming up in the next few weeks, I am grateful to the Speaker, who had the foresight to grant it. However, I am less impressed with the Government—I apologise to the Minister if I imply a personal criticism—who do not see fit to devote their time to debating or examining policy in this area before taking fairly serious decisions that will affect our businesses and research councils. Space is exceedingly exciting. I went to a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council exhibition the other day, which was, rather inappropriately, held in the Treasury. I had with me a schoolboy doing work experience, who was very enthusiastic about what he saw in the presentation on what was happening in space. For example, it was good to find, even under the auspices of an anonymous philanthropist, that the opportunity for schools to use a telescope directly through computers in their schools is being made available through Cardiff university. A couple of weeks ago, I visited Salford to look at the Group 4 Securicor tagging and monitoring exercise, where I saw the satellite tracking that is being used in two pilots—among the three being conducted by the Home Office—monitoring the control of criminals at the end of their sentences when they are in the community. I was impressed by what has already been shown up by those pilots. I hope that the Minister will familiarise himself with the commercial applications for space, which are paying our society dividends. I shall concentrate mainly on one aspect, which the hon. Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry) mentioned. How do we ensure that the benefits from space research flow through to our space industries? I yield to no one in my admiration for the successes achieved by our space scientists in pushing forward our knowledge of the universe and its origins, and there is a lot to say about that. However, I am concerned that we are not optimising the industrial benefits that should flow not only from scientific research, but from civil research, whether funded by the Government, the European Space Agency, the EU or our space industries. Like many people, I do not see the issue as political and I certainly do not raise it to score political points because many of the problems have existed for some time, whether under a Conservative Government or the current Labour Administration. I raise the matter from a genuine desire to engage the Government in a discussion and to find a solution. I share the Government's objectives to exploit space technology to benefit us through improvements in communications, Earth observation to monitor climate change and all the other items that have been mentioned in this debate. Massive improvements have been made in using space technology, but it is not functioning correctly. The problems result from the machinery of government and are, therefore, all the more difficult to solve. As the practical uses of space extend, more Departments are affected. Having recognised that some 20 years ago, we established the British National Space Centre to act as a focus for space activities, both internationally through ESA and the EU, and recently, bilaterally with China. Internally, BNSC acts as a forum for interested partner Departments and the scientific research councils. All the agencies and councils have worked together well and achieved some great successes.