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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what responsibilities his Department has for (a) formulating and (b) overseeing regulation of the shale gas industry; and if he will make a statement.

Responsibility for formulating and overseeing regulation of the shale gas industry has been transferred to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The Department will fulfil the same role previously undertaken by the Department of Energy and Climate Energy.

The Government has been clear that shale development must be safe and environmentally sound. The Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering concluded that risks can be managed if industry follows best practice enforced by regulation [1]. We already have one of the most robust regulatory regimes in the world for shale gas and we will look to continuously improve it as the industry develops.

[1] The Royal Society and The Royal Academy of Engineers, Shale gas extraction in the UK: a review of hydraulic fracturing, 2012