Mr Hammond is now complaining that the information made public in 2015 did not contain ‘all the information that is now coming to light’. Well, of course it did not. The information available now is the result of years of intense study and assessment by experts, including Shell and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which the Government pledged to undertake at the time.

The information available and presented in 2015 was that required as the necessary first stage in order to ensure that the LNG plant could be built. More detailed and more intensive work was always required to develop a preconstruction plan, a pre-operational plan, and an offsite plan. All these have been quietly and diligently worked on since 2015 and are now all ready and approved. The work has included visits and inspections from HSE to ensure maximum safety in the design, construction, and operation of the plant.

The Government says it has followed and complied with all the requisite procedures prescribed under the Public Health Act and at no time has it misled the public. In fact, it is the GSD that are misleading the public by publishing erroneous information.

Minister John Cortes said, ‘It beggars believe that Trevor Hammond should even suggest that the Government would act in a way that would place the community in danger, or indeed that his judgement is so diminished that he would consider that a massive company like Shell would risk its international reputation by embarking in a project of this nature without fulfilling absolutely every legal, logical and necessary step to ensure proper process and safety.’

29-11-18 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR