Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendations of the UK Trade and Business Commission's report entitled Trading our way to prosperity, published May 2023.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
His Majesty’s Government is getting on with the job of delivering economic growth for the whole of the UK. Our trade strategy is to trade our way to prosperity. We are driving prosperity by seeking to strengthen the World Trade Organisation, reform the global rulebook, protect UK business, and open markets by signing high-quality trade deals and removing trade barriers.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
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.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
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/