To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to publish the Critical Minerals Strategy.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what funding (a) his Department, (b) the Government and (c) other UK entities provide for domestic critical mineral exploration in the UK.

The Critical Minerals Strategy is expected to be published this year and will review how the existing funding landscape and other policies support the sector.

Existing funds such as the Automotive Transformation Fund, National Security Strategic Investment Fund, UK Infrastructure Bank, UK Export Finance and R&D via the National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research are available to support investments at various points along the critical minerals value chain in specific sectors. For example, Cornish Lithium has received support via the Getting Building Fund (2020) and Automotive Transformation Fund (2021) and British Lithium has received grant funding from Innovate UK (2020) and the Sustainable Innovation Fund (2021).