UK Parliament / Open data

Infrastructure Bill [Lords]

Proceeding contribution from Joan Walley (Labour) in the House of Commons on Monday, 26 January 2015. It occurred during Debate on bills on Infrastructure Bill [Lords].

That is exactly the point—no one knows who has overall responsibility. The Environment Agency appeared before the Environmental Audit Committee to give evidence, but it was unable to take overall responsibility. Somebody has to, otherwise we will be dealing with liabilities long into the future.

I know that our time is brief, but I wish to raise the issue of whether there could be a moratorium. People out in the country see that we currently have exploration for shale gas going on, but not full-scale industrialised extraction. When that is in place, 10 or 15 years down the line, the issues will not have been properly thought through. Why do we not sort all of that out now? Why do we not have a regulatory regime that is fit for purpose both for exploration and for the larger-scale extraction that will happen later?

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
591 c605 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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