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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the potential volume of waste water from hydraulic fracturing operations in the event that the industry develops as proposed in the government's energy policy. Choose one

The UK shale gas industry is at the very early stages of exploration and we do not yet know how much shale gas it will be possible to technologically and commercially extract from UK shale reserves. In order to determine the potential of the industry and the benefits it could bring the UK, we need exploration to go ahead and Government encourages this. Further exploration will be needed to determine the amount of waste water which would be created by future shale gas development.

Future treatment capacity, cost and its expansion is a matter for the shale gas and waste water industries. Both businesses proposing to explore for oil and gas using hydraulic fracturing, and operators carrying out treatment of any wastes generated, require environmental permits from the Environment Agency, which are subject to a detailed site-specific assessment. The permits set legally binding conditions on how activities are carried out so that the local environment is protected.