– in the Scottish Parliament at on 17 March 2016.
3. To ask the Scottish Government what impact fracking would have on Central Scotland. (S4O-05678)
No fracking is permitted in Scotland as we have a moratorium on unconventional oil and gas developments.
The Scottish Government will take no risks with Scotland’s environment while unanswered questions remain about the potential impacts of unconventional oil and gas. One of the world’s most comprehensive programmes of research into the technology is now under way, and we will also hold an extensive public consultation to let the people of Scotland have their say. That is the only approach that clearly and consistently promises to engage with the evidence and the public on the issue.
Even with the moratorium in place, people across Central Scotland are concerned about the impact of fracking and want to know that their leaders will fight against it, but Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos has reportedly received assurances that the Scottish National Party Government is not against fracking at all. He says that the Government
“are being quite clear. What they’ve said to us is they’re not against fracking.”
For clarity, has anyone acting on behalf of the Scottish Government ever given such an assurance?
Absolutely not. The position is as I have stated this week, last week and the week before—it remains the same. Unlike the Conservatives—who have now arrived in the chamber—and the Labour Party, we take a sensible approach: we look for the evidence.
I will run through some of the areas in which I think it is absolutely correct that we are looking at the evidence. They include: understanding and mitigating community-level impacts from transportation, including in Central Scotland; decommissioning site restoration and aftercare; understanding and monitoring of undue seismic activity; climate change impacts; economic impacts; and scenario development. For all those areas and more, it is essential that we provide the evidence to stakeholders and the public. What could conceivably be wrong with that approach?