Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what lessons his Department has learned about the impact of recent global conflicts and pandemics on UK strategic autonomy.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK National Security Strategy is clear that we need to increase our preparations for potential threats, from future pandemics to energy and supply chain disruption.
The UK's alliances and partnerships are critical to our safety and our collective security is a source of significant strength. But it must be delivered in the right way, mitigating against areas of over-dependence and moving instead towards interdependence.
We are embedding lessons from COVID-19, including those of the COVID-19 Inquiry. The largest ever national pandemic response exercise was conducted last year, testing coordination efforts across all regions and nations of the UK and we published the new Pandemic Preparedness Strategy in March 2026, alongside £1 billion of investment in health protection.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to publish an updated National Resilience Strategy covering food, energy, health, critical minerals and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government published the Resilience Action Plan on 8 July 2025 to set out its resilience strategy. It set out three core objectives to improve the UK’s resilience to the full range of risks we face: (1) continually assess how resilient the UK is in order to target interventions and resources; (2) enable the whole of society to take action to improve their resilience; and (3) strengthen the core public resilience system. These objectives inform a series of activities to deliver greater resilience across the whole of society.
Designated Lead Government Departments are responsible for leading work to identify risks within their sectors and ensuring that planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to update national resilience standards for (a) transport, (b) water, (c) energy and (d) digital infrastructure.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Responsibility for updating standards for individual infrastructure sectors sits with the Lead Government Departments for those sectors.
In the 2025 Resilience Action Plan, the Cabinet Office committed to mapping the standards that apply to Critical National Infrastructure sectors, which includes transport, water, energy and some aspects of digital infrastructure. This work is ongoing. Cabinet Office will work with relevant departments as they identify and address any gaps in resilience standards that emerge from that mapping.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what plans his Department has to accelerate domestic renewable generation, including offshore wind, tidal energy, green hydrogen and geothermal.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Accelerating renewable generation is one of this Government’s missions and that’s why we published the Clean Power Action Plan.
There are a range of interventions this Government made since coming to power, including lifting the onshore wind ban in England and the significant progress already made to deliver a solar rooftop revolution.
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism is one of our main levers to intervene and in Allocation Round 7, we secured a record 14.7GW of renewable capacity, including 8.4GW of offshore wind, and four new tidal stream projects totalling 20.9MW. We look forward to more capacity being released under future CfDs.
We are supporting 10 green hydrogen projects across England, Scotland and Wales through the first Hydrogen Allocation Round.
The Government recognises the renewable resource that the UK has for geothermal energy and is pleased to see innovation in both heat and power applications.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of UK energy resilience to disruption to global gas or electricity markets.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK benefits from a strong and diverse security of supply and we continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East closely.
The Government works with Ofgem, the National Energy System Operator and the Gas and Electricity System Operators to monitor the energy supply horizon and ensure industry continues to have the tools required to manage supply and demand.
The Government is strengthening energy security by reducing dependency on volatile global fossil fuel markets and delivering a diverse, secure and clean energy system based on renewables and nuclear, backed up by unabated gas to be used only when essential.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS medicines and medical devices depend on overseas supply chains, and what action is being taken to strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Given the complexity and global nature of medical supply chains, the Department does not collect definitive data on the proportions of products dependent on overseas supply chains.
Many products rely on components sourced from overseas. For example many active pharmaceutical ingredients, the biologically active components that produce the intended therapeutic effect in medicines, have a license for manufacturing in India, Germany, China, Italy and the United States of America, and many of our finished medicine products have a license for manufacturing in India, and Germany, as per Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency licensing data in 2022.
The Government is taking forward a package of measures to strengthen domestic life sciences manufacturing capacity and reduce reliance on overseas supply chains. This includes committing up to £520 million through the Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund to support capital investment in United Kingdom based manufacturing of human medicines, medical diagnostics, and medical technologies. Alongside this, the Life Sciences Transformational Research and Development Investment Fund supports large‑scale, innovative research and development projects that create new or expanded research and development capabilities and strengthen the UK’s research base.
This sits alongside the Life Sciences Sector Plan, a ten‑year mission led jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which includes action to improve National Health Service innovation and adoption, clearer procurement routes into the NHS, reformed incentives to support innovation, and faster regulatory approval for new medicines and technologies. These measures are reinforced through the Government’s Industrial Strategy, which identifies life sciences as a priority growth sector and focuses on creating a pro‑business environment that supports investment and strengthens UK manufacturing capability.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the UK’s preparedness for medicine shortages caused by future pandemics or international disruptions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The resilience of United Kingdom supply chains is a key priority, and the Department and NHS England are committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. We are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages.
The Department, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to further improve our ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen our resilience. As part of that work, we continue to engage with industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver solutions. However, medicine shortages are a complex and global issue and everyone in the supply chain has a role to play in addressing them, and any action will require a collaborative approach.
The Department also undertakes significant proactive risk evaluation to assess readiness against threats that could lead to potential disruption of medical supply chains. As part of this, the Department has participated in and led on a number of preparedness exercises, spanning across nationwide loss of power, cyber-attacks, and global pandemics, to test and improve our ability to respond to supply disruption.
In early August, the Department published a policy paper, Managing a robust and resilience supply of medicines, which provides greater transparency of the supply chains we rely on, the actions we take to protect patients from medicines shortages when they occur, and the steps we are taking to enhance resilience in our supply chains. This paper is available at the following link:
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps are being taken to develop domestic processing and recycling of critical minerals.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government’s 2025 Critical Minerals Strategy sets out clear steps to expand domestic processing and recycling. We are harnessing UK strengths in midstream processing and advanced recycling, supported by strong research institutions and government-backed financing such as DRIVE35, the National Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance.
The Strategy also includes an ambition for 20% of UK demand to be met through recycling by 2035. Government intends to publish the Circular Economy Growth Plan soon to further strengthen circularity and recovery.
New funding of up to £50 million will be made available later this year to support critical mineral projects, including projects in midstream processing and recycling. Further detail will be announced later this year.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support (a) SMEs and (b) strategic industries in the context of reducing dependence on global supply chains.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are establishing a new Supply Chain Centre within the Department for Business and Trade which will lead the government's efforts to strengthen the resilience of supply chains critical to the UK's security and prosperity. The Supply Chain Centre will collaborate with industry to ensure the UK is prepared for future disruptions.
The Department has also brought its SME support into the Business Growth Service, providing UK businesses with the tools they need to start, scale and compete globally through business.gov.uk.
Our Industrial Strategy focuses on boosting investment, driving economic growth and supporting high quality jobs, while enhancing economic security through stronger capability, diversified suppliers and strategic international partnerships.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help increase domestic manufacturing capacity in (a) grid components, (b) pharmaceuticals, (c) advanced materials and (d) other essential sectors.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Last year this government published our 10-year Modern Industrial Strategy, setting out our long-term approach to strengthening domestic capability across strategically important sectors. Alongside it we published several sector plans. The Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, sets out our support for six ‘frontier’ manufacturing industries, including advanced materials. It also outlines cross-cutting measures aimed at boosting manufacturing overall, including for component manufacturers and foundational industries.
The Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out support for the pharmaceuticals industry, while the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan shares our priorities for the UK’s clean energy economy, including how we’re tackling and improving grid connections.