Shale Gas (Lancashire)

Debate between Mark Menzies and Paul Maynard

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Westminster Hall

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to be given the opportunity to introduce this Adjournment debate on community interests in shale gas in Lancashire, and it is a great pleasure to do so under your chairmanship, Mr Benton.

It is important for Parliament to hold regular debates on shale gas, because there is considerable potential for it to impact on the constituencies of many right hon. and hon. Members. The title of my debate in the Order Paper suggests that I would like to focus exclusively on the financial benefits that shale gas could bring to communities in Lancashire following the recent announcement of a community benefits package by the Treasury and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. As we are still in the early stages of shale gas development, however, I firmly believe that further work is still to be done on a range of other related issues, most notably on regulation, community engagement, the development of a UK supply chain and the suitability of potential sites.

I have consistently campaigned on the regulation of the shale gas industry. In my Adjournment debate in October 2012, I addressed the need for a body to be formed to oversee the workings of the regulatory bodies on matters relating to onshore oil and gas development, because it is imperative that shale gas development takes place only if we have robust regulations in place. I pay tribute to the previous Minister with responsibility for energy, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes), for responding to those and other issues that I raised in my Adjournment debate and for establishing the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil.

The Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil must take on responsibility for ensuring that the existing regulatory bodies, namely the Health and Safety Executive, the Environment Agency, DECC and Lancashire county council as the planning and mineral rights authority in Lancashire, work together to deliver a world-leading, gold-standard regulatory framework. It is the responsibility of the office not to become a regulator but to ensure that those that are empowered to be regulators are doing so to an exemplary standard.

I also urge the Minister to ensure that regulations are robust and are developed to ensure the highest environmental safeguards, as opposed to what is simply convenient for the industry. The focus should be on robust regulations and we should try to get away from using words such as “streamlining.” When people hear about streamlining, they interpret it as the watering down of regulations, which I am sure is not the case. Were it the case, it would not be acceptable to me.

I welcome the decision to make environmental impact studies compulsory for shale gas development sites, regardless of size, which is an evolution from where we were two years ago. Regulation is not what is written on a piece of paper; it is about what is enforced. I therefore urge the Government to ensure that we have regular, on-the-ground visits by regulators and inspectors, some of which must be unannounced so that shale gas development sites have the authority of operating to the highest environmental standards and no one is beyond reproach. In order to achieve that, it is important that regulators are provided with sufficient resources to fulfil their role.

We must be able to anticipate future developments as the industry progresses, if shale gas development does take place. We must be fleet of foot to ensure technical changes as the industry evolves and that the regulators and regulations are fit for purpose. For example, it would be inconceivable for regulations on shale gas developments in Lancashire to be entirely enforced by the HSE from Aberdeen. The HSE is based in Aberdeen for various obvious reasons, and therefore if and when the shale gas industry develops in the north of England, it is important that it responds accordingly, with regulators based in a much more localised area. Consideration must therefore be given to the creation of a regulatory hub to monitor the development of shale gas at a local level so that anyone who puts in a freedom of information request or writes to the Minister to discover what he is doing can have confidence that this is being taken seriously and things are being done diligently.

In my first Adjournment debate, I stated my strong opposition to the suitability of the Anna’s road site for potential shale gas extraction. My position remains unchanged, and I welcome the announcement from Cuadrilla that it has put on hold any potential development of the site. Decisions will be taken not by Members of Parliament but by elected county councillors, and therefore I do not plan to say any more on that in this debate.

Finally, I urge the Minister to ensure that there is rigorous monitoring of the traffic light system that was put in place following the seismic tremors in Lancashire in 2011, because it is important that public confidence is absolutely maintained in the system. Much work was done to ensure that the traffic light system was put in place prior to the resumption of fracking, that it is indeed fit for purpose and that we constantly monitor and review it to ensure that it does the job for which it is intended so that we see no repetition of the seismic tremors that we experienced in Blackpool.

Public engagement in any controversial sector is critical, but in something as new and controversial as shale gas it is absolutely paramount. I therefore want to see engagement with the local community at the forefront of what is done by the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil, the regulators and the industry itself. Although the industry has done some work to address that, it is an area that needs substantially more work as the industry evolves and potentially develops.

When the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil was established earlier this year, one of its main roles was to support public engagement and to help people to understand the facts about unconventional gas and oil production and what that could mean if it takes place in their area. With such a central role to play in the future of shale gas development, it is important that the office has the necessary resources to help drive public engagement.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

I am sorry that I cannot be here for the whole debate, but I have to go to a meeting on the Keogh review rather urgently. Does my hon. Friend agree that the community engagement fund that is being created for the benefit of local communities has to be transparent in its governance and cannot just be dominated by local government interests? Has he considered what types of community organisations could be brought in to ensure that the fund is truly reflective of the local communities that are meant to be benefiting?

[Mark Menzies]

My hon. Friend is a champion of transparency like no other, and he pursues transparency in other areas of his work. I know that he has now turned his attention to ensuring that shale gas is also transparent. I will touch on some of those issues later in my speech, and I know that other hon. Friends will do so, too.

It is inconceivable that the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil has a single page on the Government energy and climate change website. I might be wrong, and I stand to be corrected, but this is an opportunity for the Minister and the Department to create an interactive online portal where my constituents and my hon. Friend’s constituents can go to seek information, a myth buster that is scientific, evidence-based and impartial.

I get many questions from constituents, which are often highly technical and which I simply cannot answer. I am a Member of Parliament not a geologist, and I have no background in the oil industry, so I need somewhere I can go to get those questions answered. I pay tribute to the people at DECC who for three years have been studiously answering letters, often through Ministers including the current Minister, but a community interactive portal where people can post questions and in the fullness of time—they will not get instant responses; it may be days, weeks or potentially longer—get impartial, independent and science-based replies would help to take away some of the fear, the unknown and the uncertainty that shale gas currently has for many people. Information and transparency are key.

I thank Duarte Figueira, the recently appointed head of the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil, for taking the time to discuss with me in more detail many issues relating to shale gas development. He has always found the time and always been courteous. I encourage that sort of attitude and ethos within the office, so that no one can be in any doubt about its willingness to engage and answer questions.

Community involvement is not just a role for the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil; ultimately, companies must take responsibility for it. I urge them to ensure that they are sufficiently resourced and have the right people in place to deliver quality, effective and impartial community engagement, to tell people what they are doing and when and to take people with them. Ultimately, that is a challenge not for Government but for developers, but I want the Government to oversee it and ensure that they do so effectively.

Onshore Gas

Debate between Mark Menzies and Paul Maynard

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

I am delighted to have secured this evening’s Adjournment debate on an extremely important issue. Many of the issues related to onshore gas exploration and extraction are, rightly, of concern to residents in my constituency and throughout the country. I am pleased to see a number of my hon. and right hon. Friends present and taking a keen interest in the debate. I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Eric Ollerenshaw), who recently secured a Westminster Hall debate on wider energy interests in Lancashire. I know that he, like me, is concerned for the well-being of not only the environment in the county but the well-being of all our constituents. The issue is not just prevalent in Lancashire. Shale gas reserves have been found in the constituencies of a number of other right hon. and hon. Members, so it is right that we have this debate. It is timely, because any decision on the future of the industry is still to be made.

I pay tribute to the previous Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry), for his work on the matter. It was my privilege to work as his Parliamentary Private Secretary for two years, and I know how hard he worked on this issue and many others. I wish him well in what he does next.

I have subsequently had the opportunity to meet the new Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes), on several occasions to talk about regulations on shale gas and more widely. I know that he takes the issue as seriously as I do, and I am grateful for all that he has done to date. I am pleased that he will be responding to this evening’s debate.

The issue that we have come here to discuss is extremely important, particularly in Fylde, where, as my hon. Friend the Minister knows, two earth tremors were triggered by the actions of Cuadrilla Resources last year when the Preese Hall gas well was fracked. As a resident of St Anne’s myself, I know at first hand the concern that that has generated. It left many constituents worried about the way in which the process is regulated.

It must be said that we have come some distance since then in understanding what is required and in making improvements to the regulations surrounding the emerging industry. Notably, there is the traffic light system to ensure that tremors are unlikely to occur again, which is most welcome. I am further pleased that I have received assurances from the Minister that his Department is taking on board recommendations from the reports of both the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering on shale gas.

I was also most grateful that my calls for a shale gas strategy group to be established, encompassing the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency, were swiftly acted upon. Ensuring that there are no gaps in regulation and that there is cross-departmental understanding on shale gas is extremely important. I know that representatives of each organisation are working extremely hard.

The debate is therefore not about bringing into question the expertise or integrity of the people involved in those regulatory bodies. I was extremely pleased that representatives of the HSE, the EA, DECC and Lancashire county council were present at a public meeting that I held in Fylde. I know that they were left fully aware of my constituents’ concerns and saw at first hand the level of research and knowledge that Fylde residents have accumulated over the past year. Rather, then, the debate is about supplementing their work to ensure that we achieve a gold standard of regulation.

We still have some way to go before we have a regulatory system in place for any potential stage of development. We need a system that addresses all concerns, that can be properly enforced and that sets an example to industry across the world. That is particularly important for the UK, where population density will always be a factor.

As it stands, what is supposed to happen is that DECC assesses and licences drilling, development and production activity; the environmental regulator with jurisdiction for the geographical area in question monitors and regulates the environmental aspects of shale gas fracking; the HSE monitors shale gas operations from a safety perspective; and the relevant planning authorities have a key role in considering the acceptability of the activities in question from the viewpoint of traffic movements, visual intrusion, consistency with local plans and so on.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend share my concern that the plans for gas storage in salt caverns in the Wyre estuary and the possibility of fracking are a dangerous combination, given what he said earlier about the risk of earthquakes and earth tremors occurring again?

[Mark Menzies]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point, which was touched upon in the debate that my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood secured in Westminster Hall. I know that the Minister heard that point and is well aware of it.

Many of the people who have been involved in the process are experts in their field, but despite that, I do not believe that the regulatory system is robust or transparent enough to instil public confidence should permission be granted to the industry. That is why I am calling for an independent panel of experts to be set up without delay. Many questions and concerns still surround the shale gas process, and it is vital that we have a panel for three purposes: to look at each issue in detail; to fully appraise the risk; and to ensure that specific regulations are in place to deal with that. If part of the process cannot be dealt with safely through regulation, an alternative method should be found. If, however, an alternative way of carrying out that process is not possible, it must not be done.