Petrochemicals giant Ineos has lost its legal challenge against an 'effective ban' on fracking in Scotland.

The Court of Session has ruled there was no prohibition against the controversial gas extraction technique, therefore making Ineos' case "unfounded".

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.

"The stance of the Scottish Government before the court is that there is no legally enforceable prohibition. 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."

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Continuing, Lord Pentland said currently, there is an "emerging and unfinalized" planning policy "expressing no support on the part of the Scottish Government for the development or extraction of UOG in Scotland".

"The process of policy development is not yet complete; the important stages of a strategic environmental assessment and a business and regulatory impact assessment have still to be carried out," he said.

"There is no basis on which the court should interfere with those procedures; the petitioners will have a full opportunity to contribute to and participate in them. I conclude that since there is no prohibition against fracking, the petitioners' case is unfounded; their application for judicial review of the alleged ban must accordingly fail."

Tom Pickering, Operations Director Ineos Shale, said the judgement makes it clear that government decisions will now have to be based on facts and science, "rather than prejudice and political expediency".

"We welcome the decision announced by Lord Pentland today.  We are in the extraordinary position where a senior judge has effectively concluded that the Scottish Government did not know what it was doing.

"He has ruled that there is no fracking ban in Scotland.  We are sure that this will be a surprise to all those who heard the First Minister and others repeatedly tell Holyrood the exact opposite. It is for MSPs to decide whether Parliament was misled deliberately or simply through incompetence.

"The Scottish Government caved in to demands from ill-informed environmental activists. It ignored the evidence presented by its own scientific experts. Today's judgement makes it clear the SNP Government will now have to make decisions based on facts and science rather than prejudice and political expediency."

(LM/MH)