Thank you for giving me the floor Chair.

As the UK delegation has highlighted, the Space Industry Act became law in 2018 and the regulations underpinning the Act, came into force in July 2021. These pieces of legislation make provision to regulate all spaceflight activities carried out from the UK.

The term ‘spaceflight activities’ includes both sub-orbital and space launch activities. In developing the legislation to regulate these activities, the UK thought carefully about the definitions contained within our legislation and policy – looking to industry, legal frameworks and policies within other Member States, the UN treaties and agreed international guidelines. We also considered the wide range of suborbital and launch to orbit activities being proposed by industry to ensure our legislation captures these. The development of our legislation was a cross-Government project.

Chair,

Our approach to regulating launch to orbit and sub-orbital launches from the UK is to look at the purpose and function of the mission. It is the UK view, that defining where space begins is not necessary to be able to regulate these activities and is not required when considering future space traffic management approaches.

Under the UK Space Industry Act the term ‘Sub-orbital’ encompasses the launch or the procurement of the launch, operation and return of a craft capable of operating above the stratosphere or a balloon capable of reaching the stratosphere carrying crew or passengers. The Act uses these terms to determine the activities to be regulated by the Act, it does not define where space begins.

The term ‘Space activities’ encompass the launch or procurement of the launch, operation and return of a space object or aircraft carrying a space object or any activity in outer space. A ‘Space object’ refers to an object that will go into Earth orbit or beyond or the launch vehicle responsible for putting the object into orbit.

Chair,

In practice, we anticipate licensing four types of spaceflight activities from the UK in the near future. Firstly, sub-orbital activities – either traditional rockets or the horizontal launch of a sub-orbital spacecraft – often called a sub-orbital spaceplane. These flights will provide access to a microgravity environment for science experiments and space tourism.

Secondly, putting a satellite into orbit using a vertically launched rocket or using an air launched rocket attached to a traditional manned aircraft – known as a carrier aircraft. Our regulations could also regulate launch of satellites into orbit from high altitude balloons.

Thirdly, we will continue to licence the operation of a satellite in orbit.

Finally, we can issue a return operator licence to authorise the landing of a spacecraft in the UK which has been launched from overseas.

In addition, the legislation regulates activities associated with spaceflight, including the operation of spaceports and range control services.

Regardless of how a launch is defined, the UK has taken an approach to place safety at the heart of the regulation of our spaceflight activities. Applicants for a launch operator, return operator or a spaceport licence must include a safety case with their application. The safety case must demonstrate that the applicant has systematically identified the major accident hazards associated with planned activities.

The safety case is a live document, licence holders must keep the safety case under review and update the regulator on any material changes.

Our legislation was created in the knowledge that whilst we may deem an activity as sub-orbital, we appreciate that some in the international community may take a different view. With this in mind, operators engaging in both sub-orbital and launch to orbit activities will be required to indemnify the UK Government for any claims brought against it and all operator licences issued under UK legislation contain a limit of operators’ third-party liability. Operators are required to take-out third-party liability insurance to an amount determined by the regulator. This could cover any successful claims brought by other States under the UN Liability Convention against the UK as launching State.

In line with our obligations under the UN treaties, we inform the UN Secretary General of all UK space objects launched into Earth orbit or beyond and will continue to do so, and to maintain our own National Registry of space objects. When launches begin from the UK, whether they are suborbital or launch to orbit, these will also be kept on a UK registry of launches, available to the public, to ensure transparency across all of our activities.

We hope that by sharing the UK approach to launch to orbit and sub-orbital activities, that this has been beneficial to other Member States. We are happy to discuss our approach in more detail with Member States that would be interested.

Thank you Chair.

The £14 million scheme is an investment in one of South Yorkshire’s most important flood defence assets and makes the Bentley area more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The pumping station is used almost daily, not just during flood incidents. Its impact would be noticed within a few days if it stopped working, even in dry weather.

Bentley experienced devastating flooding in 2007 when the pumping station flooded, making it inaccessible for Environment Agency incident response teams. This led to the decision to refurbish and upgrade it, to make it more resilient.

The government funded refurbishment of the pumping station increased overall pumping capacity by 20 per cent and reduced operational carbon emissions by over 20 per cent.

Refurbishing the existing pumping station, instead of constructing a new one, has saved the taxpayer £8 million and made 60 per cent carbon savings. This is part of the Environment Agency’s work to use new innovative techniques, technology and lower-carbon materials to reduce its carbon footprint and help reach net zero targets.

The site is now significantly more flood resilient because all the vital equipment is now positioned out of the way of potential flooding, and access routes to the site have been raised above flood level.

The scheme was part of the Environment Agency’s previous six-year programme of capital flood defence schemes, which has successfully protected more than 314,000 homes since 2015.

Last year, a record £5.2 billion government investment to create around 2,000 new flood and coastal defences and better protect hundreds of thousands of properties across England was announced.

The project was officially opened by the chair of the Environment Agency, Emma Howard Boyd.

Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the Environment Agency, said:

At 80 years old, Bentley Ings Pumping Station is a great example of combining history with cutting edge engineering to prepare for rising climate shocks.

The teams working on this scheme have reduced carbon emissions in construction and operations by 60 percent, made savings of £8 million and increased pumping capacity by 20 percent.

Subsidence caused by 20th century coal mining means this station is used nearly every day even in dry weather so I hope this work will give people in Bentley and Doncaster a greater sense of security in the years to come.

The Coal Authority supported the project with a contribution of £1.5 million to the project.

Andy Morritt, acting head of Environment Strategy & Sustainability at the Coal Authority, said:

As part of our work to make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas, we work with key partners like the Environment Agency on schemes to mitigate and prevent flooding and pollution. This important upgrade will help manage the likely effects of climate change, giving communities greater protection in the future while helping to provide peace of mind and protecting the environment.

The refurbishment work was impacted by flooding in November 2019, so an additional £4 million was made available to repair storm damage to the pumping storm damage to the pumping station and provide further upgrades.

Environmental enhancements have also been made as part of the scheme through the planting over 1 km hedgerows, 60 trees and 2 hectares of diverse grass meadow.

Despite the challenges of the Covid -19 pandemic, further floods, and supply chain delays due to Brexit, the project has been delivered on time and to budget.

With the increasing impact of climate change, it is impossible to completely stop the risk of flooding. The Environment Agency is working with other organisations to help mitigate current and future flood risks.

• UK launches programme of up to £35m to support negotiations and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
• The AfCTFA is expected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, create jobs, and provide new commercial opportunities for businesses across Africa and the UK.
• It comes as Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, visits London to discuss how the UK can continue its work as a strategic partner to the trading bloc.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced a new UK programme to support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) trading bloc.

Through the AfCFTA Support Programme, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will provide up to £35m to provide trade facilitation and trade policy support to the AfCFTA Secretariat and Member States through TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and other regional partners.

Announcement of the programme comes as AfCFTA Secretariat Secretary General Wamkele Mene visits London to discuss how the UK can continue its work as a strategic partner to the AfCFTA.

As the world’s largest free trade area, the AfCFTA has the potential to boost Africa’s economic growth by driving industrialisation, generating jobs and delivering prosperity across the continent.

For UK businesses, the trade bloc will remove market access barriers by creating a single continental market, making it easier and more cost-effective for UK businesses to export goods and services across the 54 AfCFTA member states.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

As an independent free trading nation, the UK strongly supports the AfCFTA – the largest free trade area in the world.

We’re keen to see continued momentum on outstanding negotiations, and on practical implementation of the agreement on the ground.

This new aid programme shows that trade is a force for good, and will lead to increased trade, investment, and prosperity for both Africa and the UK.

Minister for Africa Vicky Ford said:

Closer integration between African economies boosts growth across the continent creates opportunities and helps lift people out of poverty.

The UK is a committed partner in this mission. This UK funding will promote long-term partnerships between African countries and support a more prosperous, greener continent.

I am delighted to be supporting the AfCFTA Secretariat and its Member States to deliver freer and fairer trade systems in Africa.

Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat Wamkele Mene said:

We are pleased to receive this support from the Government of the UK, as it ushers us into a partnership for strengthening cooperation related to customs and trade facilitation and trade policy across the African continent.

In the last five years or so, we have seen the re-engineering of our Regional Economic Communities, to take into consideration the aspirations that are embedded in the AfCFTA instruments. We have also witnessed during this period the enthusiasm and the energy of our private sector to rise to the occasion and begin to exploit what is provided for in the Agreement.

Our ambition now is to see commercially meaningful trading in ‘Made in the AfCFTA’ products taking place, across the length and breadth of our continent, to create jobs and economic opportunities for Africans, especially women and the youth. We want to make trade easier for the Africans, in particular our women and young Africans who trade across our borders.

This new AfCFTA support programme is, therefore, timely to facilitate the implementation of the AfCFTA, through supporting national implementation committees and regional economic communities.

The programme builds on existing work from the FCDO and DIT Trade for Development unit to strengthen partnerships and resilience in Africa.

Under the UK’s G7 presidency last year, the new British Investment International (BII) group pledged to work with other G7 Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to invest at least $80 billion in the African private sector by 2027.

Support for projects in Africa from UK Export Finance is also at its highest in decades, backing a range of infrastructure projects in countries from Côte d’Ivoire to Uganda, with more than £2.3 billion of financial support in the past year.

The AfCFTA Support Programme also complements the UK’s broader partnership with the African Union as a multilateral institution to promote global values.

Alongside the Secretary of State for International Trade and Minister for Africa, Secretary General Mene will meet with members of the UK’s business and investor community while in London.