Oral Answers to Questions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend will know that waiting lists have fallen by around 200,000 since the election. We set an aim of 2 million extra appointments in the first year; we have not had 2 million extra appointments but 3 million, and the first year is not yet over. We are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care on that. We know it is just the start: it is a good start, but we have a long way to go to get the health service back to the levels that we want to see.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

16. What recent progress his Department has made on strengthening national resilience.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Ms Abena Oppong-Asare)]

In April, we launched the UK Resilience Academy. We will be undertaking a full national pandemic response exercise that will test the UK’s capabilities, plans, protocols and procedures in the event of another major pandemic. I have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to identify the gaps. As a result, we have developed a new risk vulnerability map to identify areas with high numbers of people who may need more support in a crisis.

[Perran Moon]

After a decade of under-investment in our critical minerals industry, the Conservative Government have left the UK wildly over-reliant on Chinese supply chains. In order to strengthen our national economic resilience, does the Minister agree that the UK’s industrial strategy must support rapid acceleration of domestic production and processing of critical minerals?

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the industrial strategy, which will be published shortly. It will set out our vision to deliver growth and economic security and resilience. Alongside that, the Government are working closely with industry to publish a new critical minerals strategy this year, to help secure our supply chain for the long term and drive forward the green industries of the future.