Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for UK supply chain resilience of increased demand for critical minerals arising from the electrification of the heavy goods vehicle fleet.

The UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy sets out the UK’s vision for securing the critical minerals it needs across the Industrial Strategy’s growth sectors, including advanced manufacturing. The strategy introduced a forward-looking growth minerals list, identifying minerals of increasing importance to future industries and economic growth. While this assessment focused on passenger and light commercial electric vehicles rather than heavy goods vehicles, the strategy recognises the growing demand for critical minerals due to electrification across the UK economy. To help meeting this growing demand, we are therefore committed to optimising our domestic production and building resilient UK and global supply chains.