asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Marine, Landscape and Rural Affairs, Jonathan Shaw, on 3 December 2007 (Official Report, Commons col. 742W), whether the information requested will be provided for those waters which are ultimately classified as nitrate vulnerable zones. [HL1486]

The consultation on how we implement the nitrates directive in England closed on 13 December and we are carefully considering all responses before taking decisions on how to proceed, including whether to designate extended nitrate-vulnerable zones (NVZs) or apply the action programme across the whole of England.

If the decision is taken to designate NVZs, Defra will publish the results of its analysis of water quality monitoring data which formed the basis of the designations. The raw monitoring data collected from the network of surface water and groundwater network in England, much of which was used in this analysis, is already publicly available either on request from the Environment Agency or via its website.