The UK government has agreed to a ban on fracking but only in the protected areas known national parks "other than in exceptional circumstances" and accepted an amendment by the opposition Labour party on tougher regulation but in a parliamentary vote has rejected any other changes to its flagship legislation.
The debate has caused cross-party polarisation in Britain, with many MPs from different parties wanting to see a total moratorium adopted, as in France and The Netherlands.
Despite the concessions, ministers won a series of votes by large majorities, including an attempt by junior MPs to place a moratorium on any further fracking taking place.
Environmental Audit Committee chairwoman Joan Walley backed a failed amendment which would have placed a moratorium on further fracking. She said: "If you actually look at what people out in the country want, they perceive that at the moment we have got exploration going on for shale gas. What we haven’t got is full-scale industrialised extraction of shale gas. And at the point when that is there, ten-15 years down the line, it is going to be the case that these issues haven’t been properly thought through. So my point is – why don’t we have all that sorted out now?"
But Energy and Climate Change Committee chairman Tim Yeo said: "We should actually speed up the process of encouraging fracking so it can establish whether indeed this is a valuable natural resource whose exploitation would be generally for the benefit of consumers and for the environment."
