Bim Afolami MP, Member of Parliament for Hitchin & Harpenden, grilled his constituency neighbour Grant Shapps – the Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Secretary – over securing the supply of critical minerals, to help deliver energy security over the longer term.
Mr Afolami, who sits on Parliament’s powerful BEIS Select Committee and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Renewable and Sustainable Energy, has taken a leading role on energy security in Westminster. He raised the point that secure supplies of critical minerals are vital to longer term energy security, with particular regard to things like lithium ion batteries.
The Secretary of State acknowledged that Mr Afolami was correct about the importance of critical mineral supply chains. He declared that the Government has a strategy to secure those supply chains and pointed to the success of UK green lithium as an example of effective supply chain management.
Speaking after his intervention, Bim Afolami MP said,
“Supply chains for the critical minerals we need to deliver longer term energy security are vitally important. It was reassuring to hear that the Secretary of State understands the importance of those supply chains and that the Government is thinking strategically about how to secure these to deliver energy security.
“We can only really deliver energy security with clean, homegrown energy supplies and the events of this year with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have shown us that failure to secure our energy supply chains and insulate ourselves from hostile actors controlling our energy supply is vitally important. I will continue to hold Ministers to account to deliver energy security and secure energy supply chains.”
