As the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, said, there are not many people here, but this issue is incredibly topical, particularly given that Cuadrilla announced last week that it intends to apply for planning permission for two new sites in Lancashire for fracking. As the noble Lord mentioned, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee considered this statutory instrument alongside another one, which would amend the requirements for applicants to notify owners and tenants of land individually of applications for such development. I shall not repeat the apposite and pertinent comments that the noble Lord has made—I echo them entirely—but shall pick up on one of them and made one further, final remark.
As he said, the Government failed to publish a detailed analysis of the consultation when they laid these instruments before Parliament. That reluctance is probably understandable when we look in detail at that analysis. As the noble Lord said, only seven of those responses were in favour, with 155 against. That is really important, and not just in terms of how we take forward the issue of fracking; it is about how we have a process for planning that involves the local community. The broader principles of what planning is for were debated at length by many of us in this House in the context of the Localism Bill and the National Planning Policy Framework. It is to be deeply regretted that the views then expressed about what the purpose of the planning system should be—it is about balancing the competing demands of those to achieve truly sustainable development for our country—appear not to have been heeded.
I am particularly grateful to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for highlighting the shortcomings in the Government’s procedure on this matter. It highlighted to those of us in this House who care deeply about ensuring that we have a fair planning process that we will have to watch developments even more closely in future. Again, this is particularly topical, given that it is likely that there will be announcements in Europe this month about the future of GM crops.
It will be interesting to note what the department might be planning for in terms of applications in that new area of development.