Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, on what date she was made aware of the £900 million in loans and guarantees made by UK Export Finance to the Mozambique LNG project.

In line with the requirements of the OECD Common Approaches, the fact that UK Export Finance was considering support for the project was published on its website in August 2019. Following that consideration, my predecessor collectively consulted with ministerial colleagues before UK Export Finance support was made available.

More broadly, I would observe that in December 2020, the Prime Minister announced at the Climate Ambition Summit that the UK will end new direct support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas. The Prime Minister announced that the UK Government will no longer provide any new direct financial or promotional support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas, other than in exceptional circumstances, and align its support to enable clean energy exports. This policy shift applies to any new official development assistance, investment, export credit and trade promotion activity overseas. Following consultation, this new policy came into effect from 31 March 2021.