Labour and Lib Dem accuse government of sneaking plans through ‘back door’ after giving no time for Commons debate

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

MPs have voted to allow fracking under Britain’s national parks, drawing accusations that the government has sneaked the measure through parliament without a proper debate.

Ministers used a statutory instrument – a form of secondary legislation – to push through the new rules, which means legislation can pass into law without a debate in the House of Commons. MPs voted in favour by 298 to 261.



The new rules allow fracking 1,200 metres below national parks and sites of special scientific interest, as long as drilling takes place from outside protected areas. This comes despite the government previously pledging an outright ban on the controversial technique for extracting shale gas in such areas.

In January Amber Rudd, the then parliamentary undersecretary of state for climate change, told MPs: “We have agreed an outright ban on fracking in national parks [and] sites of special scientific interest.”

Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) cover about 8% of England and similar proportions of Wales and Scotland.

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But the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) later confirmed that exploration for shale gas would no longer be prevented in SSSIs.

In November the government partially reversed that decision, acknowledging public concern over fracking in sensitive areas, and added SSSIs to a list of protected areas where surface drilling would not be allowed. The list already included national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

But anti-fracking campaigners and opposition parties have been quick to point out that companies will still be allowed to drill down on the edge of such protected areas and then drill horizontally underneath them.

The shadow energy and climate secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the government was using “a parliamentary back door to put through these weak regulations without a proper debate”.

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“Ministers had previously conceded there should be the tougher safeguards that Labour has been calling for to protect drinking water sources and sensitive parts of our countryside like national parks,” said the Labour MP. “Now they have abandoned those promises.”

Nandy repeated Labour’s call for a moratorium on fracking in Britain until it was proven to be safe and not to have a negative effect on the environment. “Neither MPs nor the public have received these assurances yet ministers are ignoring people’s legitimate concerns and imposing fracking on communities,” she said.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, accused the government of using “a parliamentary wheeze” to relax the rules on fracking around and under national parks and other protected sites.

Farron said: “Our national parks and areas of scientific interest are now at risk and the government should hang its head in shame.”

The UK onshore oil and gas representative body, UKOOG, welcomed the news that the secondary legislation had passed. In a statement, the group said: “The onshore oil industry takes the protection of our natural world seriously and we have a long established track record of developing oil and gas fields successfully and safely in environmentally sensitive areas.

“It is important to recognise that any future hydraulic fracturing for shale will take place several kilometres underground and as an industry we take all possible steps to minimise our impact on the environment and the surrounding communities.”

Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said the government would have to urgently rethink its entire approach to energy policy if it was to match its rhetoric on the climate deal struck in Paris.

“To have any realistic chance of keeping global warming to well under two degrees we need to ban fracking in the UK,” said Lucas. “That’s why the decision to allow drilling under protected areas as well as everywhere else is so deeply disappointing. Not only does fracking fly in the face of the climate science but mounting evidence suggests it won’t lower bills.”

Rose Dickinson, an energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, pointed to the government’s own research, which found that water contaminated in the fracking process could pose risks to human health.

Dickinson said: “People will rightly be concerned that the government is not following through on its commitment to have strong regulation on fracking. It is time for us to follow in the footsteps of Scotland and Wales by halting all plans for fracking, which is completely incompatible with tackling climate change and the agreement reached in Paris.”

The Scottish and Welsh governments have both introduced a moratorium on fracking. Westminster MPs defeated an attempt to impose a UK-wide moratorium in January but the coalition government was forced to accept several Labour proposals to tighten regulation of shale developments.

A Decc spokesperson argued that the UK had one of the best track records in the world for protecting the environment while developing industries. “These regulations will get this vital industry moving while protecting our environment and people. Yesterday’s task force for shale gas report confirmed exactly what we have been saying for some time – that with the right standards in place fracking can take place safely.”