Greenpeace has warned that amendments added in the House of Lords have significantly weakened proposed fracking legislation currently making its way through Parliament.

The environmental organisation was commenting after the House of Commons passed the Infrastructure Bill yesterday which contains a number of measures to introduce fracking regulations.

Greenpeace energy campaigner Simon Clydesdale said:

 “That the government has backtracked to weaken fracking regulations, including those that should protect our vital drinking water supplies, simply proves that we need a moratorium on fracking. Despite Labour’s efforts to strengthen them, the regulations passed today are so full of loopholes that they cannot be trusted to protect our water, countryside or climate.”

 He added that Shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex had said that Labour’s fracking safeguards were “all or nothing,” and that fracking “should be stopped until all those conditions are met.”

Greenpeace said Labour must now call for a moratorium on fracking, as they have in Scotland and Wales.