Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the reliance on China for (a) pharmaceuticals, (b) microchips and (c) cobalt batteries.

The Government is working hard to ensure we have resilient and diverse supply chains in place to ensure the continued flow of essential goods for UK consumers. This includes looking at our trading relationships with a range of international partners, as well as considering domestic initiatives to promote our economic recovery.

The Government committed £146 million through the first Life Sciences Sector Deal to grow medicines manufacturing in the UK. We have established the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership with industry to ensure that the UK is recognised as a world-class advanced centre for medicines manufacturing.

The Government has also committed £274 million to the Faraday Battery Challenge to support the research, development, and scale-up of world-leading battery technology in the UK. The Faraday Battery Challenge is funding research to reduce our dependency on raw mineral supply and make better use of global resources such as cobalt.