Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of China's rare earth export restrictions on the defence sector's supply chain.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The (Ministry of Defence) MOD is actively engaged in de-risking critical defence supply chain vulnerabilities, working collaboratively across Government, with industry and our international partners, including NATO, to mitigate risks.
The Department recognises China's influence in global Rare Earth Element (REE) supply chains and the wide-ranging applications of REEs in the defence supply chain. MOD's initial assessment is that China's REE export restrictions pose a low risk to defence outputs at present. But we will keep this under constant review.