Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to hold discussions with G7 counterparts on memorandums of understanding for deep sea mining.

In conjunction with the recent G7 Summit in Japan, the G7 Ministers for Climate, Energy and Environment met at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in April 2023 and agreed a Communique on 16th April which included mention of deep seabed mining, that the G7 will "continue to actively engage in the development of a regulatory framework on deep seabed mineral exploitation under International Seabed Authority (ISA) that ensures effective protection for the marine environment from harmful effects which may arise from such activities, as required under the UNCLOS". The full G7 statement on deep sea mining can be found at www.env.go.jp.