Fracking
Debate between Gerald Kaufman and Lord Barker of BattleWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend’s eloquent intervention is on the record, and I certainly take on board his points. I now want to crack on because I want to reply in some detail to the serious points that my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale raised in his opening speech.
Sir Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
I very much welcome the cautious way in which the Minister is explaining this issue to the Chamber. It is important that we balance the apparent short-term gain against the serious danger of long-term detriment, which will be impossible to reverse once the process is under way.
Gregory Barker
There are good reasons to think that, whatever the resource may be, shale gas will not develop as dramatically here as it has in the US. Britain is a much more densely populated country, and shale gas is still in its very early days here. Just one well in the UK has been drilled and fracked, so the production prospects are simply unknown at this stage. Whatever they may be, the Government will continue to seek full economic recovery of UK hydrocarbon resources—both conventional and unconventional—when that can be done safely and with environmental integrity.