SCOTTISH LABOUR will try to ban fracking based on “irrefutable” scientific evidence that shale gas extraction damages the environment.

People across Scotland are rightly concerned about the potential health implications of unconventional oil and gas extraction, said Labour environment spokeswoman Claudia Beamish as she announced that the party would introduce a Bill to stop it.

“This is about Scotland’s future, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the condition we leave our planet in for our children and our grandchildren.”

The Scottish government introduced a moratorium on fracking in January in 2015, while it gathered independent evidence.

Labour, Lib Dem and Green MSPs voted for an outright ban on fracking last summer, but the SNP government decided to continue with its position.

Friends of the Earth Scotland director Richard Dixon called for Scotland to permanently ban fracking in law, not just in policy, and congratulated Labour for keeping up the pressure.

He said: “Fracking would damage people’s health, local economies and the global climate. With tens of thousands of people telling the Scottish government they don’t want fracking, Scotland needs to use a full legal route to rule it out for good.”

A government spokeswoman said: “A decision on the future of unconventional oil and gas will only be made after the responses to our consultation have been independently analysed, published and the Scottish Parliament has had an opportunity to vote on the recommendation we will make on whether this should be allowed in Scotland.”

She said this would be completed before the end of this year.