Draft Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing (Protected Areas) Regulations 2015

Dennis Skinner Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 General Committees

[Dr Whitehead]

The hon. Gentleman may consider that the reason for the 1,200 metre protection; like me, he does not know. It may be that one could consider a process—the Minister may enlighten us in the fullness of time about how that process might work, when she comes up with a list of protected areas, as she has said she might—in which a drilling rig could be set up on the boundary of a national park, then drill diagonally for a number of miles and then go further around to reach whatever it is thought might be reached at 1,200 metres below the national park. I would consider that fairly unlikely, particularly in large protected areas, because the drilling process would have to be extensive even to get there. However, like the hon. Gentleman, I am in the dark about whether that is the reason, because it is not stated in the SI, and indeed was not stated in the main legislation.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

I used to work in very deep pits. My hon. Friend might be coming to the fact that drilling might cause gas to escape. The reason why I say that is that the Government want to be very careful about what they are doing. After Arkwright colliery in the Bolsover constituency closed, it had not been closed very long before there was an escape of gas into about 200 or 300 houses close to the pit. We were lucky that nobody was killed. Had somebody struck a match, the whole village could have gone up in smoke.

That is what can happen, and my hon. Friend has described it almost exactly. The drilling shaft and then, at 90°, the seams of coal and so on—it is almost an exact replica of what it is like in a pit, and I defy anybody to suggest otherwise. We all carried a safety lamp down the pit. Why did we carry them? To find gas. Believe me, when canaries went down the pit, they went for the same reason.

[The Chair]

Order. Interventions should be short.

[Mr Skinner]

I am just finishing. I say to my hon. Friend that I do not know whether he was going to talk about gas, but it would not be a bad idea. [Interruption.]

[The Chair]

There is a Division in the Chamber. I understand from the Opposition and the Government Whips Offices that there will be two Divisions, so I suggest that we reconvene at 3.35 pm.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Skinner]

I came here principally because we have an application in the Bolsover area, in a small village called Calow. They oppose this very idea and the net result is that most of the village is on the side of those who oppose fracking. Cuadrilla set up almost immediately so I realised that there was a lot of money involved, a lot of profit, and that is what this is all about. It is about a licence to print money and, until the oil price went down, it was a licence to print a hell of lot more money, and who knows what the price will be in the future? I am here to represent my constituents and I promised them that I would come and do that.

I have to tell the Committee that, contrary to what a lot of people think, Derbyshire had more than 50 pits. There are mine shafts all over the place. Even somebody at the Department for Transport has drawn a line that runs across the M1 four times and over two pit shafts. Be careful about lines that are drawn on a fag packet by this Government, because that is what might happen. I am here to represent my constituents and to say, “Keep up the battle”. I am with them all the way. I do not believe in this nonsense about fracking. No one will find me saying, “On the one hand, this, and the other hand, that.” I am against it in principle.

I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test has decided to vote against this, in the absence of the Tory Government withdrawing the measure and bringing it back in another form. I wish I had a vote, Mr Hanson. Give me one if you like; I will use it.