The Infrastructure Bill, which includes proposals to allow oil and gas companies to drill below 300m without the permission of landowners, begins a new parliament stage next week.

The Bill received a second reading on Monday (December 8^th  2014) Our report  and Hansard transcript

It now goes into the committee stage where MPs will examine it line-by-line. This is scheduled to begin on Tuesday 16^th December and be completed by Thursday 15^th January.

The shadow energy minister, Tom Greatrex, has submitted amendments to the clauses dealing with underground access. These include:

• A presumption against developments under protected areas
• Monitoring of emissions and publication of findings
• Requirement that the Environment Agency approves substances left or stored underground
• Requirement on planning authorities to consider the cumulative impacts of exploiting oil and gas in deep-level land
• Requirement of Environmental Impact Assessment for all sites extracting oil or gas
• Independent inspections of the integrity of wells
• Public disclosure of chemicals used in fracking
• Consultation with local water companies
• 12-month monitoring of the impacts of oil and gas extraction
• Devolution to Scotland of licensing of onshore shale gas extraction and responsibility for mineral access rights

Full list of Labour’s amendments

Link to latest news on the Infrastructure Bill

Post updated 12/12/14 with names of MPs on the Committee Stage of the Bill

• Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham )
• Mr Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane)
• Richard  Burden (Birmingham, Northfield)
• Alistair Burt (North East Bedfordshire)
• Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal)
• Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
• Mr John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings)
• Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry)
• Robert Jenrick (Newark)
• Graham Jones (Hyndburn)
• Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne)
• Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston)
• Mr Brooks Newmark (Braintree)
• Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton)
• Mr Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich)
• Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd)
• Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye)
• Jim Shannon (Strangford)
• Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test)
• Stephen Williams (Bristol West)
• Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon)