Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of asking British International Investment to produce a critical minerals strategy that (a) strengthens the UK's supply chains and (b) supports its development goals.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
British International Investment's (BII) mission is to help solve the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation. With regards to the critical minerals sector, BII's role is currently most relevant where it supports investments in the enabling infrastructure around critical minerals projects. As part of BII's next strategy, we will consider whether and how BII's approach to critical minerals should evolve.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussions with the National Wealth Fund on establishing a platform for geothermal investment to commercialise the industry.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor issued a new Statement of Strategic Priorities to the National Wealth Fund (NWF) on 19th March 2025, in which she set out that the NWF is at the forefront of investing public money for our future to help deliver the investment that underpins the Government’s growth and clean energy missions.
The Chancellor made clear that the NWF should prioritise investment into clean energy, digital and technologies, and advanced manufacturing, alongside transport sectors. An NWF investment into any geothermal project would be subject to the investment satisfying the NWF’s normal requirements for investable proposals.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what consideration he has given to allow British International Investment to borrow from the financial markets to support the expansion of its international development goals.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In the first two years of British International Investment's (BII) current strategy (2022-2023), BII has invested approximately $3 billion into developing economies and mobilised an additional $2 billion in private capital on top of this. BII is evolving its approach to mobilising private capital, including through its new Mobilisation Facility announced by the Prime Minister at UNGA. As part of preparations for BII's next strategy, we will consider options to enable BII to continue mobilising private capital at scale.