Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will publish the records of all the sites where waste was deposited following the site reclamation of the Corby Steelworks in the 1980s.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Records of all the sites where waste was deposited following the reclamation of the Corby Steelworks site should be held by the local authority that managed the reclamation, in this case North Northamptonshire Council.
The Department for Business and Trade does not hold this information.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he has taken to assess the suitability of Glomar Minerals Ltd as a licence holder for deep sea exploration.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
UK Seabed Resources Limited remains the holder of the UK’s two deep sea mining licences following its sale to Glomar Minerals Ltd. The UK government is carrying out a thorough review of Glomar Minerals Ltd and the UK’s sponsorship of UK Seabed Resources Limited under UNCLOS and the Exploration Regulations.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what guidance he has issued to the UK delegation to the International Seabed Authority about the establishment of a global moratorium on deep sea mining following recent legal analysis of President Trump's Executive order on deep sea mining.
Answered by Catherine West
The UK supports a moratorium on the granting of exploitation contracts for deep sea mining projects by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). We will not sponsor or support the issuing of any such exploitation contracts for deep sea mining by the ISA until there is sufficient scientific evidence about the potential impact on deep sea ecosystems and strong enforceable environmental regulations, standards and guidelines are in place. This is a matter for each ISA member State to consider carefully.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the independent evidence review commissioned by the previous government and undertaken by scientists from the British Geological Survey, National Oceanography Centre, and Heriot-Watt University will be taken into account in his determination of the sponsored exploration licences for Deep Sea Mining.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2021 independent evidence review, commissioned by the previous government, remains a valuable contribution to our understanding of the environmental impacts of deep sea mining. The government will take all relevant information into consideration when reviewing its sponsorship of exploration licences.