Environmental protection

Implementing the Nitrates Directive in England

What is the Nitrates Directive?

The Nitrates Directive, adopted by the European Union in 1991, aims to reduce water pollution caused by nitrogen from agricultural sources and to prevent such pollution in the future.

The Directive requires Member States to:

  • designate as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) all land draining to waters that are affected by nitrate pollution.
  • establish a voluntary code of good agricultural practice to be followed by all farmers throughout the country. 
  • establish a mandatory Action Programme of measures for the purposes of tackling nitrate loss from agriculture.  The Action Programme should be applied either within NVZs or throughout the whole country.
  • review the extent of their NVZs and the effectiveness of their Action Programmes at least every four years and to make amendments if necessary.

The European Commission website has further details including the full text of the Directive and a report on how it has been implemented across Europe.

Designating Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

The Nitrates Directive requires member states to identify waters which are or could become polluted by nitrates and to designate as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) all land draining to those waters and contributing to the pollution.

The following criteria are laid down in the Directive for use in identifying polluted waters:

  • Surface freshwaters which contain or could contain, if preventative action is not taken, nitrate concentrations greater than 50mg/l.
  • Groundwaters which contain or could contain, if preventative action is not taken, nitrate concentrations greater than 50mg/l.
  • Natural freshwater lakes, or other freshwater bodies, estuaries, coastal waters and marine waters which are eutrophic or may become so in the near future if protective action is not taken.

The Directive specifies that the following considerations must be taken into account when applying these criteria:

  • The physical and environmental characteristics of the water and land;
  • Current (scientific) understanding of the behaviour of nitrogen compounds in the environment (water and soil); and.
  • Current understanding of the impact of preventative action.

There is an obligation on member states to review NVZ designations at least every four years.  At each NVZ review, changes and factors unforeseen at the previous review must be taken into account.  The periodic review of NVZs established by the Directive means that each review necessarily presents a ‘snapshot’ assessment up to the time of the review.

Establishing an Action Programme of measures

The Nitrates Directive requires member states to establish a mandatory Action Programme of measures, which must be followed by farmers with land in NVZs to tackle nitrate loss from agriculture.

The Directive requires that the Action Programme contain rules relating to:

  • periods when the land application of certain types of fertilizer is prohibited;
  • the capacity of storage vessels for livestock manure;
  • the land application of fertilizer to steeply sloping ground;
  • the land application of fertilizer to water-saturated, flooded, frozen or snow-covered ground;
  • the conditions for land application of fertilizer near water courses;
  • procedures for the land application, including rate and uniformity of spreading, of both chemical fertilizer and livestock manure;
  • limitation of the land application of fertilizers based on a balance between the foreseeable nitrogen requirements of the crops, and the nitrogen supply to the crops from the soil and from fertilization; and
  • the amount of livestock manure applied to the land each year, including by the animals themselves, shall not exceed 170 kg N per hectare.

There is an obligation on member states to review the effectiveness of the Action Programme measures at least every four years.

Implementation of the Directive in England

66 Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, covering some 600,000 hectares (8%) of England, were designated in 1996 to protect drinking waters from nitrate pollution.  An Action Programme of measures was applied in these NVZs from December 1998.

In December 2000, the European Court of Justice ruled that the UK had failed to properly implement the Directive because we had only designated NVZs for the protection of drinking water sources, rather than for all surface and ground waters.  As a result of this ruling, a further 47% of England was designated as an NVZ in October 2002, bringing total coverage to approximately 55%.  The same Action Programme of measures that applied in the original NVZs entered into force within these additional NVZs in December 2002.

In 2006, the Department completed a review of action taken to date to implement the Nitrates Directive in England, including the extent of current Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and the effectiveness of the current Action Programme. This review highlighted the need for further action if we are to tackle water pollution caused by nitrogen from agricultural sources.  A consultation (now closed) was launched in August 2007 and invited views on:

  • proposals for revisions to the Action Programme measures, and
  • whether to apply these revised measures within discrete Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (revised to cover 70% of England) or throughout the whole of England.

The consultation ran until December 2007 and over 600 individuals/organisations responded to the questions posed.  The Department carefully considered the issues raised in response to the consultation before it took decisions on how to progress implementation of the Nitrates Directive in England – a number of changes were made to the original proposals.  The full set of documents relating to the consultation process is available.

Regulations implementing the refined proposals were laid before Parliament in September 2008 and came into force on 1 January 2009. Further information is available on the revised NVZs and Action Programme measures that these Regulations establish.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs