Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has met his Brazilian counterpart to discuss the ongoing impact of the Mariana Dam incident.

The UK Government regularly engages with the Brazilian Government on a wide range of issues, including the continuing impact of the Mariana Dam incident. Minister Docherty, the Minister of State for Europe, spoke at a Westminster Hall Debate on 22 June and mentioned ongoing work between the UK and Brazil to improve safety measures around tailings dam management. In 2019, following the collapse of the Brumadinho dam in Brazil, the Department for International Trade supported an initiative to publish the world's first Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, to help improve safety worldwide. A partnership between the British Embassy in Brasilia and the Prosecutor's Office in the State of Minas Gerais led to the launch, in May 2022, of the world's first independent tailings dam monitoring centre in Brazil, which aims to improve safety and transparency in tailing dam management.