§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Gaovernment:
What losses, whether financial or of information, will the United Kingdom or territories for which Her Majesty's Government is responsible incur as a result of the United States' decision to abandon its "open skies" policy, and allow private satellite companies to keep secret the data they obtain concerning the United Kingdom and other contries in order to sell to the highest bidder, without the leave of Her Majesty's Government.
545WA
§ The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Cockfield)The United States Government is making it a condition for the commercialisation of its Landsat system that commercial operators will have to hold as closely as possible to the current "open skies" policy of providing civil land remote-sensing satellite data to all users on an open, equal, non-discriminatory basis.546WA Commercial operators will also need to obtain the US Government's approval before changing international data distribution practices. These arrangements do not represent abandonment of the "open skies" policy, although they may involve some change as time goes on.