Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of planning permission breaches at the Preston New Road Shale gas site since the commencement of exploratory drilling.

The Department does not record centrally the number of breaches of planning control that may have occurred at any particular development site. Enforcement action against any suspected breaches of planning control is a matter for local planning authorities. Local authorities who wish to take enforcement action against breaches of planning control can bid for resources from the Department’s £1.6 million shale support funding scheme.