Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a moratorium on deep sea mining activities until a review has been conducted into its environmental, social and economic impacts.

The Government commissioned an independent review from the British Geological Survey, the National Oceanography Centre and Heriot-Watt University. The terms of reference included a review of minerals contained in seafloor deposits and how this compares to terrestrial resources, with discussion on future resource potential and knowledge gaps. The review was published in October 2022 and is available here:

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/deep-sea-mining-evidence-review-published/