The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has today laid before Parliament a written statement setting out the Government’s view that there is a need to explore and develop our shale gas and oil resources in a safe, sustainable and timely way. The statement sets out a number of measures to enable planning applications and appeals to be dealt with as quickly as possible. I am today also setting out further details of two of the planning measures on identifying underperformance in respect of oil and gas applications and a revision to the recovery criteria for appeals for planning permission for shale gas.

As indicated in today’s statement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, I may want to give particular scrutiny to planning appeals for exploring and developing shale gas. I am therefore revising the criteria for consideration of the recovery of planning appeals to include the additional criterion: proposals for exploring and developing shale gas. The new criterion is added to the recovery policy of 30 June 2008, Official Report , column 43WS, and will be applied for a period of two years from today, after which it will be reviewed. I am also making a consequential change to planning guidance to reflect this.

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