Subsidence Security Guidance 2025, issued as a technical standard for UK mining operators, is being interpreted as a de facto national benchmark for managing ground movement risk across transport, energy and water infrastructure. The framework pushes asset owners to map legacy mine workings, karst and compressible soils, integrate continuous ground monitoring (InSAR, LiDAR and automated levelling) and link trigger thresholds directly to asset management plans. For geotechnical and structural engineers, it signals closer regulatory scrutiny of differential settlement, serviceability limits and resilience of buried pipelines, foundations and trackbeds.

A proposed framework from the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) urges the Federal Government to establish a national strategic reserve for critical minerals, with rare earths as the initial focus. The plan centres on stockpiling processed products such as NdPr oxide and separated heavy rare earths, rather than unprocessed ore, to buffer supply shocks in defence, EV and grid-scale magnet supply chains. AMEC also calls for long-term offtake contracts and storage facilities co-located with existing processing hubs to anchor new Australian rare earth projects.

The Department for Transport has released a national climate adaptation strategy for Britain’s transport system, setting out how rail, road, ports and aviation infrastructure should cope with more frequent flooding, heatwaves and coastal erosion. Measures include requiring asset owners to embed climate risk into design standards and renewals, prioritising resilience upgrades on critical corridors and interchanges, and improving data on weather-related failures. For geotechnical and civil engineers, this signals tighter expectations on drainage capacity, slope stability, track and pavement performance under extreme temperatures, and long-term asset monitoring.