Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on potential steps to help ensure greater co-operation with the Democratic Republic of the Congo on (a) the critical minerals supply chain, (b) the carbon credit market, (c) agriculture, (d) energy and (f) infrastructure projects.

The UK is scaling up its efforts to support Democratic Republic of Congo to safeguard its environment and adopt a low carbon development path. At COP27, the Prime Minister announced a new £90 million programme to support forests and forest livelihoods in the Congo Basin, maintaining the momentum achieved at COP26 where Congo basin forests were in the spotlight. Illicit mining in eastern DRC has historically provided financial support for a range of armed groups. To this end, the UK supports initiatives such as the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human rights in DRC, which aim to address security related human rights abuses in the mining sector.