Space Industry Bill — Launches — Cap on Licensees' Liability Limit — 6 Feb 2018 at 15:30

Mark Field MP, Cities of London and Westminster voted not to cap the launch related liability of those licensed to carry out space launches.

The majority of MPs voted not to cap the launch related liability of those licensed to carry out space launches.

MPs were discussing the Space Industry Bill[1]

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: Cap on licensees’ liability limit and stated:

  • “(1) The Secretary of State must, within 12 months of this Act receiving Royal Assent, lay a report before Parliament setting out plans for a cap on licensees’ liability.
  • (2) Before exercising their duties under subsection (1), the Secretary of State must carry out a consultation on what an appropriate maximum limit would be on the amount of a licensee’s liability, and lay a report before Parliament setting this out.
  • (3) The report under subsection (1) must provide for, but is not limited to—
  • (a) a maximum limit on the amount of a particular licensee’s liability for each launch undertaken by the operator;
  • (b) a maximum limit on the amount of licensees’ liability for each launch classification type;
  • (c) divisions of responsibility and the level of liability for parties’ spaceflight activities, including—
  • (i) the Spaceport;
  • (ii) the launch operator; and
  • (iii) the satellite operator.
  • (4) In subsection (3) “launch classification type” means the level of risk attached to each type of launch as determined by the regulator.
  • (5) Before exercising their duties under subsection (1), the Secretary of State must consult the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive and have regard to their views in respect of any proposed regulations.
  • (6) As well as consulting those under subsection (5) the Secretary of State must consult with—
  • (a) UKspace, and
  • (b) any other such persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.”

The rejected new clause was accompanied by the following explanatory statement:

  • This new clause would require the Government to consult on and set a mandatory cap on licensees’ liability for each individual launch, based on the classification type of each launch.

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Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con272 (+2 tell) 0086.7%
DUP4 0040.0%
Independent1 0020.0%
Lab0 000.0%
LDem0 11091.7%
PC0 2050.0%
SNP0 20 (+2 tell)062.9%
Total:277 33049.0%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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