LONDON — The independent U.K. space agency will be folded into the government’s science department as part of a bid to streamline support for the country’s space sector.
The move will take place in April 2026 and is mooted as a way to minimize duplication, reduce bureaucracy and ensure better ministerial oversight.
Currently named the U.K. Space Agency, it will retain its existing brand while being staffed by officials from the existing organization and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Space Minister Chris Bryant said the decision would result in “much greater integration and focus” while “maintaining the scientific expertise and the immense ambition of the sector.”
Founded in 2010, the organization currently operates as an executive agency of DSIT.
The folding of the agency is part of a push by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Whitehall chief Pat McFadden to review arms-length bodies across government with a view to “rooting out unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication.”
The announcement was published alongside 60 recommendations from industry leaders on how to improve regulation for space missions, which the government said were “key” to unlocking a market estimated to be worth £2.7 billion by 2031.
It added that with the “right support,” the U.K. space industry could capture a quarter of the global market for in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.
While the move was praised by several industry leaders, Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith, who was space minister in the previous Conservative government, was quick to criticize the plan. Griffith said he was “concerned,” and would have favored a “more empowered U.K. Space Agency.” The move represented “Whitehall managerialism in the name of efficiencies,” he said.
The announcement was also criticized by space scientist Dr Simeon Barber, who told the BBC that the move “seems like a backward step” and could result in Britain’s space sector “losing focus” at a time when other countries are establishing national space agencies.
Agency boss Paul Bate welcomed the decision, saying that a “single unit with a golden thread through strategy, policy and delivery” would make it “faster and easier to translate the nation’s space goals into reality.”
This story has been updated with reaction from the Conservative Party.
