The energy minister, Claire Perry, attended most of a 95-minute meeting with the shale gas industry which she said she had dropped in on, MPs heard this evening.
Ms Perrytold parliament last month that she had been advised she did not need to declare the meeting under the ministerial code because she had dropped in, rather than held the meeting in her office.
But the shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, said today:
“It would appear that the minister’s involvement in the meeting may not have been as casual as she suggested.”
Raising a point of order with the House of Commons speaker, Mr Gardiner said a freedom of information request had revealed that the meeting lasted 95 minutes.
“The minister was present for at least 70 of the 95.
“This would not, by any reasonable opinion, I contend, constitute dropping in on the meeting.”
Mr Gardiner also said he could find no reference to the difference in disclosure requirements in the ministerial code.
He asked whether the minister had made any request to come to the house to correct the record.
The speaker, John Bercow, replied:
“The short answer is that no request has been made by the minister concerned or by any other minister to make a statement of correction or other statement as far as I am aware on this matter.
“If a minister believes that he or she has erred it is not only open to that minister to correct the record, it is incumbent on him or her to do so. I have received no such indication. “
News of the roundtable first came to light in July, when the minister told a debate:
“I did hold a very effective shale industry roundtable”
Initial response to FOI request by Richard Bales about the round-table shale gas meeting
DrillOrDrop reported on the meeting in August when officials at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) released heavily-redacted meeting notes in response to a freedom of information request.
Following an internal review of the FOI request, the Department released more of the notes in October.
They revealed that the government would regard several shale gas well in production as a success for the industry. The meeting was also told that ministers intended to streamline regulation for shale gas and create a “UK model” for shale gas extraction that could be exported around the world.
Some material remained redacted. BEIS said this was because it referred to policy “that is intended for later publication”. This was thought to be about proposed planning changes for shale gas, which had not been formally consulted on.
Categories: Politics
DRILL OR DROP? 
Claire Perry should resign. Disgusting behaviour.
Looks like the whole lot will be out after next week…..
You’re left wing bias is showing its true colours sher white, blue and red…
Gosudarstvenny Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii…
You don’t have to have a left wing bias to point out such an obvious potential outcome of this week’s chaotic events Kisheny.
Of course if that does happen it’s Bye Bye Fracking isn’t it? Fingers crossed 🙂
Yes it is reflection…
And higher and higher energy bills for everyone in the U.K, increasing CO2 emissions with greater LNG shipments and last but not least a firmer political sway from Russia as we import more of their Gas. Hurrah!
I work globally so the financial impact of a Labour Government will not financially hurt me but Corbyns vision of a socialist utopia will close the U.K for business…
Not one Winter of discontent but many Years of scrabbling in the darkness to come… Diane Abbott will probably number those years fewer than the rest of us though…
Where to start Kisheny, where to start?
You do KNOW fracking isn’t going to lower UK energy prices don’t you?
You can do basic addition so you can work out that a+b > a can’t you? (so your emissions shtick is hogwash)
You do realise how little gas the UK gets from Russia don’t you.
And then you let your alt-right fear of fairness get out of control. Scrabbling in the darkness? Oh dear oh dear 😉 Are you sure you shouldn’t be posting on some US neo-con old codgers board where your prejudices would be better received?
You can’t keep posting BS flecs…
Has your energy bill risen this year? Just like everybody else’s? Why? Remember weather like beast from the east? Well during these times Gas prices rise as is the market and as you are fully aware the U.K has very little storage. Who absorbs these price rises? Yes we do, just look at your bill. As you are aware LNG is twice the price of piped Gas which we are relying on more and more. If Gas was produced in the U.K these extra costs would not be added. Even now at this stage it will be too late to control prices of Gas for the next few years until U.K shale Gas comes on line. With the European court ruling that it is illegal to subsidise base load power, intermittent renewables will innevitabley fall flat when needed most, the Government will not allow base load power generation to disappear even without subsidies, so who will pay? Yep, you guessed it all of us, Industry will bear the brunt also pushing prices higher and become even more uncompetitive on the other side of Brexit, so who will pay to lower prices for industry. Yes you guessed correctly again, we will. I can very confidently state that people’s future energy bills will rise considerably over the next few years.
As for CO2 emissions, very simply look at Qatar our LNG supplier of choice
Scenario 1: Gas is liquefied to -162°C then transported Port of Doha, Qatar to Isle Of Grain, United Kingdom: 7082 nautical miles taking 29.5 days then regasification is required. Huge processing plants required and Vessels CO2 emissions from this process off the scale…
Scenario 2: Shale Gas produced PNR subterranean manifold piped direct to local Gas network a couple of hundred metres away…
As well as piped Gas through European pipelines, Half of Britain’s imports of liquefied natural gas so far this year have come from Russia, illustrating how UK households have started sending more money to Moscow after Vladimir Putin made boosting exports of the super-cooled fuel a priority
As a kid I remember Labours Winter of discontent 1978/79 and my Mum always making sure there was candles on hand. This is not a scenario I want my children to live through thanks…
The impact of UK shale gas on energy prices will be “basically insignificant”. You know who that quote is from don’t you?
Pre combustion ≄ post combustion
Britain’s imports of gas from Russia < 1%
Your kids won't need candles, or if they do it won't be because UK shale gas is a damp squib.
Sort your head out and stop being irritating.
Very weak reply flection, sorry the cold hard truth about LNG imports is so irritating to you…
Your crystal ball says U.K Shale Gas won’t be significant? It’s only just started…
Russian Gas imports are rising and so will everybodys fuel bills…
Er no Kitcheny. I’m quite relaxed about the truth about LNG imports because unlike you I don’t need to twist it.
And it’s not my crystal ball fella. It was Cuadrilla’s public relations spokesman Mark Linder who stated that “We’ve done an analysis and it’s [the influence on prices] a very small…at the most it’s a very small percentage…basically insignificant.”
Regardless of what the global market does to people’s gas bills, Cuadrilla sitting on a pad scratching their heads isn’t going to change anything.
Suck it up as those delightful Brexiteers like to say.
How exactly am I twisting the environmental impacts of importing large amounts of LNG?
Gas is liquefied to -162°C then transported Port of Doha, Qatar to Isle Of Grain, United Kingdom: 7082 nautical miles taking 29.5 days then regasification is required. Huge processing plants required and Vessels CO2 emissions from this process off the scale…
If the above process is incorrect for LNG, please enlighten me…
So nice of you to listen to the pioneering stages of U.K Shale Gas…
Such a cavalier attitude to peoples future Gas bills, you are obviously not one of the millions of people in the U.K in fuel poverty…
By producing our own Gas we will not need to import Gas and all the costs both financially and environmentally will be kept as low as possible enabling the Government to keep a price cap on energy bills by off setting Tax revenues from the U.K Shale Gas industry.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fuel-poverty-uk-figures-poor-bills-cost-households-a8417426.html
https://www.nea.org.uk/about-nea/fuel-poverty-statistics/
Because you are trying to restrict your analysis to pre-combustion emissions (because you know that if you compare post combustion emissions the difference would be relatively minor if it exists at all.
Spare us the virtue signalling of your faux concern with fuel poverty. So many industry people have told us UK fracked gas won’t have any impact on prices that you are just making yourself look silly.
I told my MP in a letter about 6 years ago, that the govt and industry needed to be open and honest about fracking development in order to carry the majority of the polulace with them. I have seen no sign of either honesty or integrity in the intervening years, therefore I have no reason to trust the word of either. This particulary incidence smacks of blatant dishonesty and a total lack of integrity by Ms Perry.