Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. Indeed, I was going to mention the great progress that has been made in respect of the River Trent in his constituency. How did we get to where we are today? The current proposals for extending and revising NVZs do not result from any new European Union directive; rather, they stem from DEFRA's need to abide by commitments originally entered into under the 1991 nitrates directive, which was agreed as part of the EU Environment Council in June 1991 and adopted in December that year.