Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Michael Fallon

Thursday 6th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton) (Con)]

T7. When will the British Geological Survey review of shale gas reserves be published? Given that IGas recently found that there are 20 times the previous estimates of reserves, does the Minister agree that shale represents a major strategic advantage for Britain, in meeting energy demand and decarbonisation?

[Michael Fallon]

I can confirm to my hon. Friend that the BGS report will be published before the summer recess. There have been a number of optimistic estimates of the amount of shale in the UK. Shale clearly has enormous potential. It would therefore be irresponsible of us not to encourage exploration to see exactly what is down there.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Michael Fallon

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton) (Con)]

2. What steps he is taking to reduce business regulation for start-ups and small businesses.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)]

Through the red tape challenge, we have committed to scrapping, improving or simplifying at least 3,000 regulations. We introduced the ground-breaking one in, one out rule, which has saved businesses around £1 billion in regulatory costs; and from January we upped that to one in, two out. In addition, the micro-business moratorium introduced in April 2011 has protected the very smallest firms, and I hope that we can build on that when the moratorium expires next March.

[Mr Raab]

I thank the Minister for that answer. The Institute of Directors estimates that regulation costs British business £112 billion each year. I understand that the Government moratorium on new regulation applied to micro-businesses and start-ups, to which the Minister has referred, expires next year. Will he extend it for another three years in order to boost growth and get firms hiring?

[Michael Fallon]

We are looking hard at what we can do to extend that protection for the very smallest businesses from burdensome regulation from next year. In addition, we are pressing the Commission to make more proposals to implement its own commitment to a moratorium. We have seen a couple of examples from the European Union so far and we need to see more.