Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the consultation on new standard rules relating to onshore oil and gas activities was held over the period of the General Election, in the light of the Consultation Principles, which state that consultations should not generally be launched during local or national election periods; whether they sought advice from the Propriety and Ethics team in the Cabinet Office prior to running the consultation, and if not, why not; and whether they now intend to rerun the consultation.

The consultation for the proposed standard rules was released on 23 March 2015, before the start of the pre-election period which began on 30 March. As such, permission was not required from the Propriety and Ethics team in the Cabinet Office and the consultation continued as normal. The consultation ran for the full 12 week period, until 15 June, five weeks after the election was held.

The Environment Agency is considering all responses to the consultation and will publish a full response.