The Government Response to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA)Select Committee Report on the Implementation of the Nitrates Directive in England has now been published.

In response, the Government said that while it understood the Committee's concern and  had previously considered such an approach at the time of the negotiation of the Water Framework Directive, it had been unable to secure support from other Member States. Its response states

“ Given the Commission’s attitude towards implementation of the Directive (i.e. several successful infraction cases), it is unlikely to co-operate at this time, not least because the UK is currently being infracted.” The Government also commented that other Member States have generally accepted the Commission’s position and already implemented the Nirective Directive, and were therefore unlikely to wish to reverse their policy and support the UK.

With regard to trends in nitrate levels, in its June Report the Committee said that  trends in ground waters should not be used to justify changes to an Action Programme that was introduced only in 1998 and extended in 2002, recommending that Defra and the Environment Agency should supply more information on nitrate levels in ground waters in future reviews of the Action Programme. The Government confined its response to the expectation of proving more detailed information and analysis on nitrate trends at the time of the next review.

The Committee has already agreed that in the light of legal action on the part of the European Commission, changes needed to be made in order to bring the UK into compliance with the Directive -  even though it shares Defra’s assessment that there is insufficient evidence to assess how effective the current Action Programme has been in reducing nitrate pollution. The Government believes however that it has been able to conclude with reasonable confidence that the measures contained in the current Action Programme are unlikely to significantly reduce nitrate loss at national level.

In the Government’s view, although four years may be insufficient time for any impacts of the Action Programme to become apparent in the monitored nitrate concentrations of groundwaters and rivers, the range of other information sources used in its review of the current Action Programme, in addition to water quality monitoring data, have enabled it to make reasonably accurate predictions.

The Government also said that it planned to continue applying the Action Programme within discrete Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (revised to cover approximately 70% of England).It does not appear to ready to act on the Committee’s recommendation that Defra should consider whether its designation methodology is as well-targeted as is practicable and publish a report as soon as possible on its conclusions. According to the Government, the methodology used in the most recent review of NVZs has been peer reviewed b independent technical experts who judged it to be the best approach currently available. The Government has said only that as technology and scientific understanding improves the methodology will be updated.

Finally, the Government has also not fully taken on board the Committee’s caution against portraying anaerobic digestion as something that will help farmers to comply with the Action Programme. The Reponse said that  

“the Government is keen to promote uptake of anaerobic digestion as it considers it could help address wider environmental challenges, such as climate change and the need to develop renewable sources of energy, and provide an opportunity for the UK agricultural sector to make a positive environmental contribution and generate additional income. “ 

While the Government has  recognised that anaerobic digestion will not be an appropriate solution in all cases, it is encouraging farmers to consider how innovative solutions and technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, could help them comply with the storage requirement and other measures.