§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy if the Government will reconsider their view expressed in paragraph 27 of Command Paper No. 6408 that it would be both impractical and undesirable to hive off responsibility to an external regulatory commission in the light of the success achieved in the United States of America by the Texas Railroad Commission and in Canada by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.
§ Mr. John SmithNo. As my right hon. Friend explained to the House during the Report stage of the Petroleum308W and Submarine Pipe-lines Bill last year, the implications of decisions on the regulation of offshore resources are too great to make hiving off practicable or desirable.