The United Kingdom Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG) which provides coordinated advice on technical aspects of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the United Kingdom has added two new documents to its website. The Phase 2 surface water standards and conditions report  and the alien species list have both been updated.

A technical report on proposals for a first set of standards and conditions was published for review in 2006. The revised report was issued in August 2006 in the form of a recommendation to the UK governments. The UKTAG updated the report in November 2007. Sections in that report on nutrients in lakes and coastal waters were removed. The updated sections have been included in the latest report.

The latest report is the UKTAG's proposals for a second set of standards and conditions which defines environmental conditions that the UKTAG views as supporting healthy communities of aquatic plants and animals and covers standards and management approaches for temperature, nutrients and suspended solids. It also proposes a system for assessing the impact of changes to freshwater flows to estuaries and the effect of managed flows, such as the releases to rivers from impoundments. The report also proposes a system for assessing the structure or condition of the beds and banks of lakes, estuaries and coastal waters. Two additional reports have been released for stakeholder review alongside the report; the UKTAG report on what the Directive calls Specific Pollutants and a report on classification schemes for groundwater.

There are also standards that will be important for the Water Framework Directive but which are beyond the scope of the work of the UKTAG. These cover pollutants that have been identified by the European Union as Priority Substances. Standards for these are being developed at the European level. Procedures associated with protected areas identified under other European water legislation are outside the scope of the UKTAG report.

The Advisory Group has pointed out that the standards and conditions that are proposed in the report will not, alone, determine the costs of implementation, because the cost depends on the process of setting objectives and the measures available and adopted for achieving them. According to the UKTAG, The Water Framework Directive allows an approach that is more firmly based on risk, where action can be taken in proportion to what it can achieve and what it will cost.