Flustered Liz Truss Blames Civil Servants for Redacted Fracking Report Fiasco
Liz Truss, the environment secretary, turned on her own department yesterday as the Tory government came under increasing criticism for its heavy-handed redactions to a controversial report about fracking.
Truss, a Conservative member of the Cabinet, toldthe House of Commons there are “no plans” for the release of an unredacted version of the incedury Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts report and blamed her own officials at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
She complained that Defra should never have produced the report. “The economic impact of fracking is a matter for the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC),” she argued. She said the report “was not analytically robust and was not signed off by Ministers”.
This echoes statements made by Amber Rudd, the Under Secretary of State at DECC, on Monday during the Infrastructure Bill debate. The Tory told MPs that the report was prepared by a junior member in another department “and it was not appropriate for them to have done so”.
Labour were quick to attack the government. Maria Eagle, shadow environment secretary, said: “Ministers have responsibility for what is done in their Department. The report has been so heavily redacted that even the name of its author has been removed.”
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