Red tape 'will delay British shale gas boom til next decade', Lords warn

But the Lords find that, despite the enthusiastic rhetoric, “progress on the ground has been at a snail’s pace” because a complex and confusing regulatory regime has delayed exploration.

Not a single fracking permit application has been submitted to the Environment Agency since a moratorium on the process — imposed after fracking caused earthquakes near Blackpool — was lifted in 2012.

The report warns: “Large-scale production of onshore shale gas in the UK is unlikely before the next decade unless effective and immediate action is taken to bring forward exploration and appraisal.”

It acknowledges “legitimate concerns” about possible harm to the environment and health from fracking, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale and extract trapped gas and oil.

The concerns should be “taken seriously” but with appropriate regulation “the risks are low”, it finds.

By contrast, there were “enormous risks” of missing out on the benefits of shale “if we don’t get on with it”, Lord MacGregor, the committee’s chairman, said, ahead of the launch of the report.

He urged “streamlining not weakening” of the regulation, which the report finds is “dauntingly complex” and could deter investors.

Writing for the Telegraph , he said: “Duplication and complexity remain rife. Operators are required to deal with the Department for Energy and Climate Change, local authorities, the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive. The timetable for different requirements is also often different, causing further delay.”

Ministers must also be “much more forceful in public advocacy of the economic benefits” of fracking, he said.

Baroness Blackstone, one of the committee’s members, said the speed with which shale was now developed “depends on the government really selling this”.

“This is about political leadership, getting out and making the case,” she said. “Our main criticism of the government is that whilst backing exploration of shale, it has not done enough to sell it.”

Francis Egan, the chief executive of fracking firm Cuadrilla, said the company expected to submit planning applications later this month to frank at two sites in Lancashire and initial drilling could begin at the earliest at the end of this year.

If the regulatory regime had been simpler, it could already have been drilling now, he said.

Mr Egan said it currently took about 18 months to progress from identifying the site to starting work. He suggested streamlined regulation could “get it down to six months or less".

Shale industry body the UK Onshore Operators Group said the onshore oil and gas industry currently complied with 17 different European Union directives and that each well required up to nine permits.

The Lords also suggested that greatet benefits should be paid to local communities near fracking sites, although they did not quantify how much would be appropriate.

Michael Fallon, the energy minister, said: “This government has made great progress creating a tax regime and simplifying regulation in a way that fosters the UK’s emerging shale gas industry and protects the public. It’s now up to operators to seize these opportunities and step up the search for shale."

But green groups criticised the report. Tony Bosworth, Friends of the Earth climate and energy campaigner, said:

“Shale gas regulation in the UK to date has been a catalogue of errors and oversights as thinly-stretched regulators have struggled to deal with fracking firms with eyes on bumper profits.

“Today’s report recognises that the regulations aren’t working - but calling for the Government to ‘simplify’ regulations and speed up the process will not reassure local communities and a public unconvinced by this risky technology."

Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK chief scientist, said: “Fracking is a non-solution – it won’t deliver for many years, if ever. The real urgent national priority is to push ahead with the renewable technology and efficiency measures which would much more rapidly address the security issues flagged up by the Ukraine crisis."

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