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101833

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking: Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of hydraulic fracturing being adopted in the Welsh valleys on seismic activity in that area.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212766
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/11/2014 answer text <p>Expert advice is that hydraulic fracturing activities are not expected to lead to any increase in normally-occuring seismic activity in any area of the UK.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 07/11/2014 15:01:37 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101834

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the use of water for hydraulic fracking on the general supply and cost of water.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212767
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2014 answer text <p>Shale gas development is still at a very early stage in the UK. The Government is committed to making the most of the opportunity it presents and is supporting the industry’s exploration activity to establish the potential of shale.</p><p>Water for hydraulic fracturing may be obtained from the local water supply company or taken from surface or groundwater if permitted by the relevant environment regulator. The environmental regulator checks the potential impact on groundwater of any fracking operations, ahead of any fracking taking place, and will only grant a licence to an operator to abstract water where a sustainable water supply is available. The application will be assessed in the same way as any other application from industry or business.</p><p>Water companies must also produce, and then update every 5 years, a long-term plan with contingency reserves in case of a drought. Water companies will assess the amount of water available before providing it to operators.</p><p>The water industry and operators have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding to engage early and share plans for water demand and waste management.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 06/11/2014 16:12:10 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101837

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what his policy is on requiring companies to inform people about fracking under their home or land.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212774
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2014 answer text <p>Companies seeking planning permission to exploit oil or natural gas are legally required to give notice of an application to owners or tenants of any of the land to which the application relates. If the development of a particular piece of land is underground only, the company is required to publish a notice in a local newspaper and put up a local site notice in each parish or ward in which the land is situated. Mineral Planning Authorities advertise and consult upon the planning applications that they receive.</p><p>The Environment Agency also publishes details of applications by companies for environmental permits on their website for public consultation. The onshore oil and gas industry, under UK Onshore Oil and Gas guidelines, has also agreed to publish information on its website; for example, industry will publish all chemicals that are used in hydraulic fracturing by composition and maximum concentration.</p><p>We are currently legislating to provide the right to use deep-level land for the purposes of exploiting petroleum and deep geothermal energy. As part of this, industry has committed to establish a public notification system to notify communities of works taking place at depth, outlining the area of underground land accessed, and the payment to be made to landowners under whose land the right of use is exercised. We are including in the Infrastructure Bill a reserve power for a statutory notification scheme, if industry commitments to a voluntary notification scheme are not met.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 06/11/2014 16:06:50 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101838

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Mining
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the ratio of energy used in extraction, including to energy produced, taking into account transportation costs and possible damage to infrastructure.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212772
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>Data on energy production and energy use in extraction are published in Table 1.1 of DUKES (Digest of UK Energy Statistics).</p><p><strong>Thousand tonnes of oil equivalent</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td><p><strong><em>Coal extraction</em></strong></p></td><td><p><strong><em>Oil and gas extraction</em></strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><em>Domestic production</em></p></td><td><p>8,025</p></td><td><p>80,991</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><em>Energy industry use in extraction</em></p></td><td><p>84</p></td><td><p>4,725</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><em>Ratio of energy used in extraction to production</em></p></td><td><p>1:95</p></td><td><p>1:17</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Energy used in transportation is published in the energy balance table, but DECC is unable to estimate the share of this associated with energy extraction. Damage to infrastructure is not estimated within energy statistics.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 10/11/2014 13:57:47 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101839

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the potential effect the investor protection clause of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will have on the number of legal challenges to the fracking industry.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212773
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2014 answer text <p>The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is under development, and it is too early to assess the likelihood of legal challenges to shale development based on the investor protection clause.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 06/11/2014 16:13:19 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101841

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether he plans to make Government subsidies available to the fracking industry during exploration, gas extraction and land reclamation.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212776
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2014 answer text <p>I have been asked to reply.</p><p>The Government does not propose to make any subsidies available to the onshore oil and gas industry.</p><p>Along with our EU partners in the G20, the UK uses the following definition of a fossil fuel subsidy: &quot;A fossil fuel subsidy is any government measure or programme with the objective or direct consequence of reducing, below world-market prices, including all costs of transport, refining and distribution, the effective cost of fossil fuels paid by final consumers, or of reducing the costs or increasing the revenues of fossil-fuel producing companies&quot;.</p><p>Under this definition the UK has no fossil fuel subsidies. At Autumn Statement 2013, the Government introduced the onshore allowance to incentivise early exploration in shale gas. The allowance exempts a portion of a company’s profits, equal to 75% of capital expenditure the company incurs, from the supplementary charge. The allowance reduces the tax rate on that portion from 62% to 30%. We do not consider differential rates of tax to be a subsidy. Companies continue to pay Ring Fence Corporation Tax (which is higher than the main Corporation Tax rate) even where income is covered by the allowance.</p> answering member constituency Witham answering member printed Priti Patel question first answered 06/11/2014 14:38:51 answering member 4066 label Biography information for Priti Patel
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101843

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what contingency plans his Department has in place for clean-up after fracking activity in the event that small fracking companies go bankrupt or refuse to take responsibility for any necessary cleaning.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212769
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2014 answer text <p>Prior to awarding a licence, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) assesses whether a company has adequate financial capacity for its planned operations, including decommissioning. DECC further checks at the drilling and, where relevant, production stages that sufficient funding and appropriate insurance is in place.</p><p>If a company causes damage, harm, or pollution to the environment, companies can be required to remediate the effects and prevent further damage or pollution.</p><p>Environmental regulators and planning authorities have powers to require upfront financial bonds to address risks surrounding environmental damages, wherever they deem this necessary. In addition, DECC has been discussing with the industry’s trade body, UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG), industry arrangements to ensure that site restoration and aftercare will be ensured, even in the event that the operator goes out of business.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 06/11/2014 16:12:51 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101845

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Fracking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if he will take steps to ensure that independent monitoring of drill sites and their effect on public health and local geology takes place.
tabling member constituency	Rhondda
tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
uin	212771
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/11/2014 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) scrutinises well design and monitors its progress to ensure the operator manages risks effectively throughout the life cycle of the well. The well design is scrutinised by HSE through the well notification system before construction. HSE also monitor well construction based on weekly reports to its well specialists. Any significant changes to well construction are subject to the same scrutiny. An independent well examiner will also review the design and construction of the well. To date onshore operators have used separate companies to supply this service, they have not been delivered in-house.</p><p>Public Health England has reviewed the potential public health impact of direct emissions of chemicals and radioactive material from the extraction of shale gas. The report concluded that the potential risks to public health from exposure to the emissions associated with shale gas extraction will be low if the operations are properly run and regulated.</p><p>Once drilling has commenced, there is a further system for monitoring and regulating risk. Well operators have a legal duty to manage and control the risks to people, so far as is reasonably practicable. The Health and Safety Executive monitors well construction and decommissioning operations to check these legal duties are met. The environmental regulator will monitor the environmental impacts through monitoring and inspections of the operator’s reports. In some cases, depending on the risks presented by a site or community concerns, they may undertake extra monitoring themselves. Conditions attached to permits will give the minimum level of site-based monitoring and reporting.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 06/11/2014 16:09:36 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

101846

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Lighting
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if he will make it his policy to implement a replacement programme to introduce LED lighting throughout his Department's buildings and sites; if he will estimate the proportion of lighting in his Department which is LED; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Colchester
tabling member printed	Sir Bob Russell
uin	212623
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/11/2014 answer text <p>It is the policy of the Department of Energy and Climate Change to run its estate as energy efficiently as possible and make significant reductions in its energy use. This is done through a range of measures which are carefully assessed for their feasibility and cost effectiveness. Using this approach DECC has installed LED lighting throughout most of its headquarters building, 3 Whitehall Place. It is estimated that two thirds of the building space directly managed by DECC already has LED lighting, with more being installed over the coming months.</p> answering member constituency Hastings and Rye answering member printed Amber Rudd question first answered 07/11/2014 12:46:26 answering member 3983 label Biography information for Amber Rudd
tabling member	35 label Biography information for Sir Bob Russell

101847

registered interest
date	30/10/2014
answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
answering dept id	63
answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
hansard heading	Wind Power: Nottinghamshire
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many onshore wind turbine applications in Nottinghamshire were (a) approved and (b) rejected in 2010.
tabling member constituency	Newark
tabling member printed	Robert Jenrick
uin	212587
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2014 answer text <p>The Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) tracks the progress of projects through the planning system:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/renewable-energy-planning-data" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/renewable-energy-planning-data</a>.</p><p>The September 2014 version of the REPD shows that, in 2010, one onshore wind installation in the Nottinghamshire had received planning consent and one had been refused. The dates for approval and refusal reflects the date of determination of appeal (where appeal decision reached), otherwise the date of determination of original application.</p> answering member constituency Hastings and Rye answering member printed Amber Rudd question first answered 04/11/2014 15:52:39 answering member 3983 label Biography information for Amber Rudd
tabling member	4320 label Biography information for Robert Jenrick