Delayed fracking plans have cost taxpayer £32m, NAO claims

Delays to the government’s plans for fracking across the UK have cost taxpayers at least £32.0m since 2011, the National Audit Office has found.

An investigation by the NAO found that the shale gas industry had drilled only three wells over the past three years, versus the 20 that had been envisaged by mid-2020.

The report released on Wednesday revealed that £13.0m of the £32.0m was spent on police tasked with maintaining security in the face of protests.

Auditors also expressed concern that official regulators such as the Health and Safety Executive, the Environment Agency and the Oil and Gas Authority relied upon the statutory self-reporting of problems by the industry.

Furthermore, landowners could end up being liable for the decommissioning costs of fracking sites if operators were unable to cover them, but arrangements were “unclear and untested”.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, shadow business and energy secretary was calling for the plans to be halted altogether claiming they were a waste of money.

“Fracking threatens air and water quality, and it contributes to the climate crisis. And as this report reveals, the government’s plan for making fracking sites safe after they’ve been used is unclear and untested. Well let me be crystal clear, Labour will ban fracking immediately.”

Public concern and “low public acceptance” of fracking operations centres had led to concerns that the government’s plans could be outright dangerous and not just costly.

Local authorities told the NAO the scale of opposition to fracking planning permission was "unprecedented".

"Lancashire County Council reported receiving about 36,000 representations from the public in relation to two fracking applications," it said.

In August, a tremor measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale was detected at a Cuadrilla fracking site near Blackpool, the largest ever recorded there, leading to the indefinite suspension of fracking since.

Indeed, fracking in the UK had made little headway since a temporary ban was imposed following an earthquake of magnitude 2.3 triggered by Cuadrilla’s first well in 2011, with just two subsequent attempts at restarting activity having been made.