Scotland court stops Ineos’ challenge against fracking ban

A judge of Scotland’s Supreme Court has ruled against oil and gas firm Ineos’ legal challenge against the government’s ‘effective ban’ on fracking.

Ineos approached the Court Of Session in Edinburgh seeking a direction to the Scottish Government to revoke moratorium against fracking for oil and gas.

The company contended that there is a ban on the gas extraction technique in the country, citing statements made by government ministers last year.

Brushing aside the claims made by Ineos, the judge, Lord Pentland, ruled that there is no ban in place and the statements made by the ministers were ‘mistaken and did not accurately reflect the legal position’.

The government argued that the moratorium does not represent a ban and a policymaking process is in progress.

Lord Pentland said: “The petition is predicated on the proposition that the Scottish Government has introduced an unlawful prohibition against fracking in Scotland.

“Whilst acknowledging that there have been a number of ministerial statements to the effect that there is an effective ban, the Lord Advocate, on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, made it clear to the court that such statements were mistaken and did not accurately reflect the legal position.

“For the reasons set out in this judgment, I consider that the government’s legal position is soundly based and that there is indeed no prohibition against fracking in force at the present time.”

The judge concluded that since there is no prohibition against fracking, the case filed by Ineos for a judicial review is ‘unfounded’.

Welcoming the judgement that there is no fracking ban, Ineos shale operations director Tom Pickering said: “We are grateful to Lord Pentland for clarifying that there is no fracking ban. The Scottish Government caved in to pressure from ill-informed environmental activists.”