The Foreign Affairs Committee today (Friday 8 March) publishes
the Government response to its report “A rock and a hard place:
building critical mineral resilience”.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) disagrees
with the Committee’s conclusion that successive UK Governments
have failed to recognise the importance of critical minerals to
the UK economy. It rejects the finding that the Government has
failed to respond adequately to the aggressive capture of large
parts of the market over the last three decades by China, but
says it recognises “the dominant position that China has
developed across a number of critical mineral supply
chains”.
The response also disagrees with the Committee’s conclusion that,
before writing the Critical Minerals Strategy, the Government did
not adequately assess the vulnerabilities and dependencies in the
UK’s industrial supply chains. It disagrees with the Committee’s
conclusion that Government failed to recognise the urgency of the
UK’s current vulnerable position.
The response agrees with the Committee’s assessment of the
importance of critical minerals to the UK’s security. It accepts
the Committee’s case for a “Team UK” offer, saying that the
Government is “developing a ‘UK Proposition’ to communicate its
strengths, ambitions and offer to international partners”.
Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, ,
said:
“Since the launch of our Critical Minerals inquiry Government has
made progress to address the UK’s current vulnerabilities in its
critical mineral supply chains. Work has been done to ensure that
Whitehall and industry are singing from the same hymn sheet –
we’d previously heard that Government was failing to communicate
its strategy to the sector.
“However, it is disappointing that Government hasn’t fully
accepted the need for urgency. We will have to fundamentally
change how we source the critical minerals we depend on, and
while this takes time, China’s overwhelming market dominance
refining minerals is a threat to our national security and
economic resilience. This means that we must start making changes
now, moving beyond strategy documents.
“This requires a whole of Government approach, given the scale of
the task ahead, and a foot firmly on the accelerator.
“In our report we called for a Team UK Proposition. We are
pleased to see that Government is working towards a coherent
‘Team UK’ offer to businesses and trading partners. However, we
are lagging behind our allies the USA and Europe, and more work
needs to be done to ensure the UK can compete internationally.”
