Jo Stevens: ..., free school lunches for all primary schoolchildren, the highest number of nurses and consultants in the Welsh NHS for a decade, the protection of the NHS bursary, unlike in England, and a ban on fracking, unlike in England, and those are just a few. Labour is the party of devolution. We are committed to reinforcing the status of the Senedd.
Lord Leigh of Hurley: Would my noble friend agree that comparisons with the United States are not really appropriate, particularly given cheap energy costs in the States due to fracking, which we do not have? It might be better to compare us with European countries. Since 2010, the UK has had the fastest growth of any European G7 country—faster than Italy, Spain, Germany and France. Will she welcome today’s...
Alan Whitehead: ...in this Chamber by one seat. Although we hope to have a lot more seats in the very near future, that is progress. The Minister has form on this. He was the Minister in the Adjournment debate on fracking some while ago—
Mark Durkan: ...Minister for his statement and congratulate him on his new job.] We welcome and look forward to the transition to a greener and more sustainable economy, but will that include a legislative ban on fracking and petroleum exploration and extraction?
Ed Miliband: It is not just us who oppose the Minister’s Bill, but those on his own side—he has lost an MP over it. I know he brought down the last Government over fracking; he is trying to do it again with his new Bill. That is the reason that people have lost confidence. They see the hottest year on record and a Government backsliding on net zero. Is it not the truth that the Conservatives who know...
Ed Miliband: I thank the Minister for his statement and, indeed, for his regular commuting between Dubai and Westminster. Given that he brought the last Government down over fracking, I think he did not want a repeat performance, hence his return. I welcome some of the key outcomes from COP28, including in particular the commitments on renewables and, crucially, a transition away from fossil fuels. That...
Margaret Greenwood: ...ecosystem of the Dee estuary in my constituency. My constituents are adamant, as am I, that they do not want to see UCG under the Dee. Nor have the Government come forward with an outright ban on fracking—again, something that my constituents and I are opposed to. I call on the Government to ban both those technologies once and for all as a matter of urgency. This King’s Speech shows a...
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: ...-violent and violent protest. There is a strong tradition in this country of non-violent direct action, from people opposing the felling of trees in Sheffield to the rural campaigners who stopped fracking wells. That tradition is a democratic safety valve against corruption and state bureaucracy. Ending the corrupt system of contracts and privatised services will take more than a change...
Jeremy Corbyn: ...in the King’s Speech. On the environmental issues that the King managed to stumble across when telling us about the new policies, we are told that, somehow or other, new oil drilling and new fracking will improve the environment, make the world sustainable and put us in line with all the conventions that the Government have signed up to over the past few years. I just think that this...
Karen Adam: ...the issue. The Conservatives are all about the problems and never about the solutions, unless they are creating the problems. The last time that I checked, the Conservative UK Government had backed fracking for shale gas, reduced subsidies for solar energy, voted against more ambitious carbon emission reduction targets, and provided financial support for fossil fuel projects, to name but a...
Lord Frost: ...have now. The correct way forward to reach any serious target to reduce carbon emissions has to be a gas to nuclear programme, first by more modern CCGT generation at existing sites and restarting fracking, following that with a revived nuclear programme. We will obviously be able to do that only if we can eliminate the market distortions and the massive subsidies and consumer costs that...
Wera Hobhouse: ..., such as the amendment to ban new coalmines, and I strongly support new clause 2. Let me now focus on the Liberal Democrats’ new clauses 11, 12, 15, 24 and 28. The aim of new clause 28 is to ban fracking permanently. Fracked fuel is a fossil fuel; it hardens our reliance on expensive gas, and it flies in the face of our net zero commitments. The Government’s own experts have said that...
Olivia Blake: .... The UK oil company Rockhopper won a case this summer against Italy over a ban on offshore oil drilling. It won more than £210 million—more than six times what it had spent on the project. UK fracking firm Ascent Resources launched legal action against Slovenia over requirements for an environmental impact assessment, which is quite a benign ask of any project. It has also launched...
Andrew Bowie: ...confirmed that they had adopted a presumption against issuing any further hydraulic fracturing consents. Therefore, further legislation is unnecessary as there is already an effective moratorium on fracking. This position will be maintained unless compelling new evidence is provided that addresses concerns about the prediction and management of induced seismicity. That is in line with...
Katherine Fletcher: I am listening quite hard to the hon. Gentleman. I cannot work out whether he is talking about onshore wind or fracking. Can he clarify that? I thought we were talking about onshore wind. Forgive me if I have misunderstood.
Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will include biodiversity offsetting requirements to any fracking licenses it grants.
Maggie Chapman: ...are proud of Scotland, whether we grew up here or chose to make it our home, know why visitors come here. Yes, it is for the beauty of our landscape, where we have rescued it from the threats of fracking or theme parks; it is for the richness of our biodiversity, which would be all the richer for bolder rewilding; it is for the purity of our rivers and streams, which would be cleaner and...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what regulatory checks his Department requires to ensure that (a) US fracked LNG imported into the UK as (i) certified gas or (ii) responsible gas has had methane leakage controlled in its production and shipment by sea and (b) UK consumers are not being charged a premium for certified gas from the US that has not had methane...
Andrew Bowie: ...power generation, which is why we are planning on phasing it out of our electricity production by 2024. We are leading the world on this, and can be proud of the action we have taken on coal. On fracking, the Government have confirmed that we are adopting a presumption against issuing any further hydraulic fracturing consents. On offshore wind, again where we are leading the world, the...
Richard Leonard: ...meet the trade union representatives at Forth Ports. This afternoon, I warn the cabinet secretary not to pander to the Jim Ratcliffes of this world—Jim Ratcliffe who, as well as still wanting to frack across the central belt of Scotland, now wants to build a nuclear reactor right in the middle of Grangemouth. I also warn her that a just transition that really is just means that we do not...