Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations were made by the Government to the EU during the drafting of the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation (EU) 2017/821; and if he will make it his policy to incorporate that regulation into UK law after the UK leaves the EU.

The Government welcomed the original Commission proposal for a voluntary due diligence certification scheme. When it became clear that this was unacceptable to the European Parliament, the UK and most other Member States accepted the shift to a scheme which is mandatory, but only for importers of the largest quantities when annual imports exceed the relevant thresholds. Mandatory due diligence obligations will therefore cover the majority of imported minerals but only a small minority of importing companies. We view this as a good compromise, which will both have a positive effect on the ground in conflict-affected and high-risk areas and preserve the competitiveness of UK business.

It is our intention that this Regulation will be incorporated into UK law once we have left the EU via the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.