Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to improve critical mineral stockpiles in the defence supply chain.

The MOD maintains strategic inventories, war stocks and other holdings across a range of capabilities and is strengthening critical mineral stockpile planning through targeted initiatives to improve supply chain resilience. The Industrial Resilience Programme (IRP) plays a central role by mapping supply chains, identifying critical dependencies including critical minerals, and working closely with industry via the Defence Industry Joint Council (DIJC) to assess and manage limitations in production capabilities.

Alongside this, Defence Reform and Defence Readiness initiatives are reviewing stockholding policies, storage resilience, distribution vulnerabilities and wartime scalability. Efforts to strengthen critical material security include scenario planning, wargaming and readiness assessments to ensure stocks are sufficient, appropriately positioned, protected and deployable at pace during conflict. Operation FORCEFUL, the wider Homeland Defence Programme and the Industrial Resilience Programme further support the early identification and mitigation of critical supply chain risks, including those relating to critical minerals.