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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what regulatory conditions are in place to detect unrecovered fugitive gas and fluid from hydraulic fracturing operations.

Management of emissions from shale well sites is regulated by the Environment Agency through the environmental permits. The permit sets out legally binding conditions on a site by site basis for how activities must be carried out so that the environment is protected.

Operators are required to carry out emissions monitoring, including monitoring of methane to air before and during shale gas operations. They also need to have an agreed gas management plan for leak detection and repair for the lifetime of site operations.

The Hydraulic Fracture Plan sets out how an operator controls and monitors the fracturing process. It needs to be approved by the Environment Agency and by the Oil and Gas Authority. The Environment Agency has to be satisfied that the operator has the controls in place to know where fractures go, where waste fluid is left behind underground and that groundwater protection measures continue to operate effectively.

All environmental and waste permits in relation to Preston New Road can be found on the Environment Agency site: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/onshore-oil-and-gas/information-on-cuadrillas-preston-new-road-site/.