Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to review the technical definition of hydraulic fracturing in respect of (a) volume thresholds and (b) geological conditions to prevent onshore oil and gas extraction operations from circumventing the current moratorium on fracking.

Proppant squeezes are not currently defined in legislation as high volume hydraulic fracturing for shale gas extraction. We are committed to banning fracking for good and any future decision on national planning policy for fracking will take into account all volumes of hydraulic fracturing.