Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the feasibility of undersea mineral extraction from nodes in the territorial waters of the Falkland Islands.

The natural resources of the Falkland Islands belong to the Islanders, and as such any consideration of undersea mineral extraction is a matter for the Falkland Islands Government. The UK supports the right of the Falkland Islanders to develop their natural resources for their own economic benefit - this is an integral part of their right of self-determination.