Nitrates - reducing water pollution from agriculture
Implementing the Nitrates Directive in England
- What is the Nitrates Directive?
- Implementing the Directive in England - the future
- Implementing the Directive in England - action so far
What is the Nitrates Directive?
In 1991 Europe adopted the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EC). It is an environmental measure designed to reduce water pollution by nitrate from agricultural sources and to prevent such pollution occurring 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 an 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.
Implementing the Directive in England – the future
The Department has recently 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.
Consultation, August 2007
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 on 21 August 2007 and invited views on:
- proposals for revised Action Programme measures to control pollution caused by nitrogen from agricultural sources.
- whether to apply these measures within discrete Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (as revised) or throughout the whole of England.
The proposals are specifically aimed at meeting the requirements of the Nitrates Directive and are firmly in line with the Government’s aim of improving the environment as a whole to enable all to benefit from it.
The consultation closed on 13 December 2007. Over 600 responses were received to the consultation and a report summarising the comments made was published on 19 March 2008.
The Government Response to the consultation, which will include a summary of what the Department plans to do as a result of the consultation responses (e.g. refine / uphold the proposals and the reasons why), is likely be announced and published before Parliament breaks for summer recess.
Consultation supporting documents
The following documents were referred to in the consultation document as supporting papers and are all available to download as PDF files. Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.
Alternatively paper copies can be requested from Defra by telephone (020 7082 8289) or email (nitratesconsultation@defra.gsi.gov.uk)
D – Evidence in support of the review of the Action Programme
- D1 – Nitrates in water: the current status in England (PDF 400 KB)
- D2 – Nitrates in water: impact of the 2002 Action Programme (PDF 350 KB)
- D3 – Diffuse nitrate pollution from agriculture: strategies for reducing nitrate leaching PDF 400 KB)
- D4 – Rationale for the proposed Action Programme measures (PDF 250 KB)
- D5 – Impact of proposed Action Programme measures (PDF 300 KB)
E – Standard calculation processes (guidance)
- E1 – Storage capacity (PDF 140 KB)
- E2 – Whole farm limit for organic manure (PDF 80 KB)
- E3 – Crop requirement limitation (PDF 140 KB)
F – Evidence to support mandatory reference figures
- F1 – Nitrogen standards (Nmax), and exemptions from the closed spreading period for manufactured nitrogen fertilisers (PDF 170 KB)
- F2 – Nitrogen output of livestock excreta (PDF 800 KB)
- F3 – Manure nitrogen efficiency (PDF 90 KB)
G – Other
- G1– Summary of methodology for identifying NVZs 2006 (PDF 90 KB)
- G2 – Nitrate Vulnerable Zones: 2003 Resurvey report (PDF 1 MB)
- G3 – Investigating the effectiveness of NVZ Action Programme measures: Development of a strategy for England (PDF 1.6 MB)
- G4 – Assistance on the Partial RIA including Extended Nitrate Vulnerable Zones in England (PDF 1.5 MB)
Implementing the Directive in England - action so far
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. The same Action Programme of measures that applied in the original NVZs entered into force within these additional NVZs in December 2002.
Further information is available on the current:
Page last modified: 19 March 2008
Page published: 27 June 2002