Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what is the annual cost to the public purse will be of the Shale Environmental Regulator Group.

The Shale Environmental Regulator Group (SERG) complements the existing regulatory regime and operates in a virtual capacity. This is afforded through existing budgets to the Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive and Oil and Gas Authority, with the exception of some specific incremental costs for three roles within the Environment Agency which cover activities for coordination and communications which are to be agreed annually. The cost within this first year for these roles is £75,000 and there have been no further additional roles or funding to any of the other regulators.