Lords Committee question minister on UK's high level of water pollution

Nitrogen is a vital nutrient that helps plants and crops grow, but high concentrations are harmful to people and nature. Excess nitrogen from agricultural sources is one of the main causes of water pollution in Europe.

In May 2018, the European Commission published a report on how well Member States have been implementing the Nitrates Directive which aims to improve water quality by preventing nitrates from agricultural sources polluting ground and surface waters and by promoting the use of good farming practices.

After scrutinizing the report the Committee were concerned to note that the UK has one of the highest annual average nitrate concentrations for surface water in the EU and that a significant number of UK monitoring stations reported increasing trends in nitrate concentrations.

The evidence session will begin at 10.30am in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords. Topics the Committee are likely to cover include:

• Concerns raised by the European Commission over the UK's implementation of the Directive
• What can be done to stop nitrate levels in water increasing (around a quarter of monitoring stations in England reported increases in the last reporting period)
• What forecasts the Government has made of future trends in nitrate levels
• The impact of current nitrate levels on human health, fish stocks, and water treatment costs
• Whether measures currently in place are stringent enough to reduce pollution from nitrates