Member

The noble Lord, Lord Lilley, was not here to move his amendment but, as other noble Lords have commented on it, I should respond. His amendment seeks to mandate the provision of financial benefits from new and historic onshore drilling works for shale gas. In May, the Government published a working paper which outlined proposals for the introduction of a mandatory requirement for developers of low-carbon infrastructure. These responses are being analysed, but the proposals did not include financial benefits from shale gas works, as there is currently no fracking for shale gas anywhere in the UK and the Government intend to ban fracking for good. In addition, our proposal on community benefits will not apply retrospectively. We wish to minimise the risk of the introduction of a mandatory community benefits scheme creating funding issues or delays by imposing new requirements at a late stage of development. We hope that the noble Lord, Lord Lilley, is satisfied with that answer.