Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Benyon on 30 November (HL Deb cols 1172–1174), what assessment they have made of the (1) health impacts, (2) developmental damage, and (3) risk of sexual assault, that may arise for children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of cobalt mining.

The use of child labour in artisanal cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains a serious problem. We regularly raise the issue of child labour in DRC's mining sector with both the DRC government and through multilateral fora such as the Human Rights Council. We also raise concerns about gender-based violence in DRC. The UK was the first country in the world to require businesses to report on the steps they have taken to tackle modern slavery. Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more to report annually on steps they take to prevent modern slavery in operations and supply chains. We are also committed to addressing the developmental impacts of illicit mining on children, and have provided funding to the Effective Approaches to Ending the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Fragile Contexts consortium, to develop innovative approaches to ending child labour in DRC.