Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park on 8 December (HL Deb, col 252), what plans they have to hold discussions with major technology companies regarding the use of child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and in particular its role in the extraction of lithium for use in batteries.

Illicit mining in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the use of child labour remains a problem. We regularly raise the issue of child labour in DRC's mining sector both with the DRC government and through multilateral fora such as the Human Rights Council. With the DRC providing 70% of the global supply of cobalt, the UK remains committed to the urgency of addressing child forced and bonded labour in cobalt supply chains. The UK supports the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which aims to improve transparency and governance in the mining sector. We are actively working with international partners and the Government of DRC to encourage responsible private sector activity and to address the governance and human rights issues linked to illicit mining. The UK provided funding to the "Effective Approaches to Ending the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Fragile Contexts", a multi-stakeholder consortium which develops innovative approaches to ending child labour in DRC.