Why didn’t we have two days to fracking talk? MPs ask

MPs kicked up a fuss yesterday at the “inadequate” length of time pencilled in to debate new laws for fracking. The government decides the amount of time allocated for debating bills and a […]

MPs kicked up a fuss yesterday at the “inadequate” length of time pencilled in to debate new laws for fracking.

The government decides the amount of time allocated for debating bills and a window of less than three hours was scheduled for hydraulic fracturing yesterday, before MPs voted against a fracking ban.

Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda complained: “It would have been far better if we had gone through the process properly and had a two-day debate on the important matters in the Bill.”

Fellow Labour MP Andrew Miller griped that time had been “wasted” on another part of the Infrastructure bill, the electronic communications code, which has now been postponed.

He said: “A huge amount of time has been wasted on it, meaning that we will not have adequate time today to debate many important details of the Bill.”

A spokesperson for the office of the Leader of the House (a post held by a government Cabinet member, currently Conservative MP William Hague) said MPs knew the amount of time for discussing the bill in advance, because it was in the programme motion approved by the House.

Latest Podcast