§ Lord Lyellasked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the final uptake for the pilot Nitrate Sensitive Areas Scheme.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)I am pleased to announce that, by the closing date of 31st May 1991, applications to join the pilot Nitrate Sensitive Areas Scheme had been received for 87 per cent. of the agricultural land in the NSAs. Eighty per cent. of farmers in the NSAs have applied to join. Details for each NSA are given in the table.
This excellent level of uptake for the pilot Nitrate Sensitive Areas Scheme shows that farmers acknowledge the problem of nitrate leaching into our water sources and, by joining the scheme, demonstrates that they want to do something about it. Once more Britain leads Europe in environmental policies.
We now have the means to reduce nitrate leaching in the areas concerned. We will also increase our understanding of the nitrate problem through our intensive monitoring of the effectiveness of different measures. This will be important prior to the introduction of wider measures in due course as a result of the implementation of the EC Nitrate Directive agreed on 13th-14th June in Luxembourg.