To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the effect upon residents and visitors in nitrate vulnerable zones of the proposals to ban slurry-spreading over winter. (176734)

The partial regulatory impact assessment (RIA), published in support of the consultation on the implementation of the Nitrates Directive in England, provides details of my Department’s assessment of the impact, in terms of costs and benefits, of all of the proposed amendments to Action Programme measures that apply in nitrate-vulnerable zones (NVZs) in England, and how this impact would vary depending on the extent of NVZ designation.