MPs request clarity on Government’s approach to Position, Navigation and Timing
23 March 2022
The Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, Rt Hon Greg Clark MP has written to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ask for further details about the Government’s plans to secure national Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) capability, following a written evidence submission from former PNT Strategy Technical Lead in Cabinet Office, Andy Proctor, currently Director of Rethink PNT, a consultancy supporting clients in PNT, space, satellite communications and ground systems.
- Letter to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- Inquiry: UK space strategy and UK satellite infrastructure
- Science and Technology Committee
The submission provides detail on the preparation of a draft PNT strategy, evidence on which was not shared as part of the Committee’s inquiry on UK space strategy and UK satellite infrastructure which heard from the Business Secretary on 9 February. The Chair has asked the Business Secretary to confirm whether a national PNT Strategy has previously been drafted by the Government as well as the timescale for releasing a PNT strategy.
The submission from Mr Proctor highlights declining investment in PNT by the Government stating that “the current status of inaction regarding the PNT strategy puts our systems at increasing risk.” It also provides detail on the outcomes of the UK Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) research programme, of which Andy Proctor was the Technical Director. It argues that the success of the £92 million GNSS programme “seems to have been supressed” inside Government. The GNSS programme was commissioned following the UK’s exit from Galileo, the EU’s satellite navigation system, but was replaced with the Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Programme in 2020.
Further information
Image: NASA/Unsplash