A GROUP of MPs will today (Monday, Jan 26) launch a twin-pronged bid to slam the brakes on fracking for shale gas – warning of the threat to “water supplies, air quality and public health”.

A report by an all-party Commons select committee calls for a ban on the controversial new process unless and until there are new safeguards, also highlighting the impact on climate change.

And, later today, the MPs will try to force through amendments to the Infrastructure Bill, which would dash David Cameron’s vow to go “all out for shale gas”.

Among the areas earmarked for fracking are parts of North Yorkshire, where up to a dozen licences for possible drilling have already been issued to gas companies.

Firms have also been invited to bid for the rights to explore in as-yet-untouched areas – although in national parks “in exceptional circumstances” only, the Government says.

Today’s report, by the Commons environmental audit committee, describes fracking as currently “incompatible with our climate change targets”.

Only a “very small fraction of our shale reserves” can be safely burned, it says, if the rise in global temperatures is to be kept below two degrees, to avoid catastrophic climate change.

And the changes to trespass laws, within the Infrastructure Bill - to allow companies to frack under people’s homes without permission – are described as “profoundly undemocratic”.

The findings are a direct challenge to the Government, which is impatient for rapid progress - confident that opposition to fracking will fall away when the first wells are up and running.

Anne McIntosh, the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, has tabled her own amendments to toughen regulations, warning that “alarm bells ringing” over fracking.

She pointed to Third Energy’s application to frack near Kirby Misperton, near Pickering, affecting six villages – despite insisting, last year, that it had “no plans” to do so.

Miss McIntosh said: “Why is this being rushed through without all these issues being properly discussed and explained to residents?

“People get very exercised that there might be blight on their properties – and, after all, an Englishman’s home is his castle.

“If we are going to have pipelines carrying waste water underground, which will freeze in North Yorkshire and could burst – sending pollution into ground water – then people should be able to make a claim.”

Meanwhile, Labour will also table a motion which would “prevent fracking from happening unless 13 loopholes in the current regulation are addressed”.

Homeowners in the US have suffered contaminated water supplies from methane leaks from fracked wells, but this has been blamed on targeting shale close to aquifers.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “We've been consistent that shale gas must be explored safely and environmentally soundly.

“We are confident that our existing robust regulation will protect residents, the environment and the landscape for exploration.”