Draft Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing (Protected Areas) Regulations 2015

Paul Maynard Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 General Committees

[Graham Jones]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. I do not know if this is your first Committee, but it is certainly the first on which I have served under your chairmanship.

I want to make a few brief comments on the regulations, the purpose of which is to clarify and hurry on the industrial-scale fracking in the UK. I question the Government’s reasons for fast-tracking this. The report I alluded to earlier, the “Summary: Intervention and Options” impact assessment, makes interesting reading and talks about being committed to developing oil and gas as soon as possible, a new tax regime—I want to touch on that—and streamlining the regulatory regime. I presume that phrase means trying to do away with some of the genuine objections and issues that might be raised about unconventional gas extraction. I am deeply concerned about that. That report talks about mitigating the risk. I think we should be sure about what we are doing, rather than simply mitigating a risk.

I am not opposed to fracking in principle; I support fair policies based on evidence. As I mentioned to the hon. Member for Aberdeen South, I do not think we should be duplicitous on this. If it can plug a demand gap before a transition to new technologies, which are not reliant on fossil fuels, and in the meantime provide jobs and local revenue, we ought to consider fracking.

It would be wrong to oppose fracking without evidence and without exception. I do not see how someone can be totally opposed to fracking and opposed to the gathering of scientific evidence through tests, unless they say they will end all gas consumption in the UK. That is an illogical position and does not stack up.

That said, fracking is clearly a different form of extraction involving a different process, and it is being carried out onshore, which is one of the critical points that ought to be raised as a concern. There are good reasons why many of our constituents are worried. I believe we should be ultra-cautious and strike a balance when considering the roll-out of fracking if it is to be proved safe. Clearly, if it has not been proven safe, there should be a moratorium, which would be a logical position.

Turning to the report, I am concerned that as early as page 4 the topic is growth and jobs. It is all about finances, not about safety. Sporadically, over the next couple of pages, the economic rather than the environmental case is mentioned. I would have thought that the environmental case should come before the economic one. On page 6 at the bottom, we are straight into Treasury figures about fracking. That causes me deep concern. We should be considering the environmental, not the financial argument. By the time we get to page 8, we are talking about production levels, and page 9 addresses development costs and gas prices, which is a long way from environmental considerations, and I am deeply concerned about that. By the time we get to pages 10 and 11, as my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester mentioned, we have tables of costings on who will benefit from this measure: private companies and the Treasury. I will return to the benefit to the Treasury, which is mentioned at the beginning of the impact assessment. I am deeply concerned that the emphasis is completely the wrong way round. We should look to protect the environment. If there is a case for unconventional gas, it should address those environmental concerns.

I am regularly contacted by my constituents on this issue. I am a Lancashire MP, and I see quite a few Lancashire MPs here today. Of course, Lancashire is probably the epicentre at the moment, with supposed considerable shale gas reserves in the Bowland basin. We have seen the test wells and the test pads out on the west coast in the constituency of the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys.

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

indicated dissent.

[Graham Jones]

You don’t have them? There are test wells and test pads very nearby on the Fylde coast. Licences have just been issued for that area, and Lancashire MPs are deeply concerned.

Finally, on my constituents’ concern and on the policy being the wrong way round, the beginning of the impact assessment mentions a new tax regime. I am delighted to oppose the Government’s plans for fracking in Lancashire so long as they are accompanied by an insulting 1% retention rate for local authorities while the Treasury collects 60% should gas flow from the wells. The Treasury is taking a huge amount of money that my constituents, and constituents across Lancashire, think is just going to be spent on Crossrail 2 or some other London or south-east project. It is outrageous that the Bowland basin should be so used. The Minister talks about a new tax regime, but that new tax regime is an insult to the people of Lancashire.