Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using spending allocated to the DRIVE35 programme for the domestic critical minerals industry.

DRIVE35 builds on the Advanced Propulsion Centre R&D programmes and the Automotive Transformation Fund. These programmes have funded a number of critical mineral projects that are strengthening the UK’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) supply chains, from lithium refinery Green Lithium to battery recycler Altilium.

DRIVE35 will continue to support the latest R&D, accelerate commercial scale-up, and unlock capital investment in ZEV technologies, including their upstream supply chain which can include critical minerals projects.