Ms Laura Burke:

I understand there is now one national Water Framework Directive implementation plan. With regard to areas that are poorer, we issued an overall water quality report in November last year which showed an overall decline of 3% and a reduction in pristine areas. I do not have that quality report to hand. The EPA looks at it on a national level to identify if water quality is improving or declining. We have seen a decline, mainly because of phosphorous and nitrogen.

We then look at highly polluted sites rather than looking at each specific area, although all that information is available in the water quality report. Part of the role of the EPA under the water framework directive is around the science and we get down to the other extreme, which is each catchment and looking at what pressures are in each individual catchment. From memory, there are approximately 46 different catchments around the country. It is at both a local level and quite a high level but I can get that information, if the Chairman does not mind, because I do not have it off the top of my head.