Government's shift to relax shale gas fracking safeguards condemned

Environment groups fear possibly 'weakened' earthquake risk rules after report on Cuadrilla drilling

Environmental groups have voiced fears that the government is preparing to row back on fracking regulations after officials said they were considering reviewing earthquake safeguard rules.

The limits affecting shale gas fracking are strongly contested by the industry because they bring an immediate halt to fracking if even a minor tremor of 0.5 on the Richter scale is recorded.