Draft Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing (Protected Areas) Regulations 2015

Harry Harpham Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 General Committees

[Tommy Sheppard]

I think we can all agree that there is a fair degree of public concern and anxiety about this process and our deliberations should try to build public trust on this matter. I was not a Member of the House in January, but I was here to observe the debate on the Infrastructure Bill and I saw the Government head off demands for a moratorium by saying that certain areas would be exempt from this technology. I do not think that it builds public trust to say in January that there will not be fracking under any circumstances in national parks or sites of special scientific interest, then to say in October that, actually, there might be regulations which will allow it to happen under certain circumstances.

The way some colleagues have talked about the 1,200 metres being somehow okay, it is as if there is a disconnection between what happens 1,200 metres under the ground and what happens on the surface; as if some mysterious process happens down there to create shale gas and then, Star Trek style, it is teleported into a lovely, shiny, clean canister and there are no problems. However, what happens 1,200 metres down is connected to the surface and what happens at 100, 200, 300 and 400 metres, all the way through the water aquifers, all the way through until you get to 1,200 metres.

[Harry Harpham (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Tommy Sheppard]

Not with three minutes to go—two minutes, I am sorry. The problem with this process, which is essentially more a chemical than a mechanical process, such as coalmining or conventional oil drilling, is that you have to pump stuff down and get stuff up all the way through the 1,200 metres and there is every chance that leakage could take place and the environment be damaged. Why 1,200 metres? Why not 1,500 metres? Why not a mile? The answer is in the explanatory notes, which talk about a balance between environmental protection and the needs of the industry. That is not good enough to reassure the public.