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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether local planning authorities can only grant hydraulic fracturing consent for a well after an environment impact assessment directive compliance assessment has taken place.

The Infrastructure Act 2015 makes clear that my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State will not grant consent for associated hydraulic fracturing unless the environmental impact of the development, which includes the relevant well, has been taken into account by the local planning authority.

We will expect operators to complete an Environmental Impact Assessment in order to fulfil condition 1 in section 50 of the Act.