{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/nitrate-pollution-prevention-regulations-2015/regulation-5",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/nitrate-pollution-prevention-regulations-2015/regulation-5.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2015/668",
  "legislation_title": "The Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/nitrate-pollution-prevention-regulations-2015",
  "path": "regulation/5",
  "kind": "regulation",
  "number": "5",
  "heading": "Recommendations and proposals",
  "text": "(1) The Agency must, before 10th August 2016 and before 10th August of every fourth year thereafter, make recommendations to the Secretary of State by reference to the matters referred to in regulation 4(5)(a) to (c) as to which areas of land should be, or should continue to be, designated as nitrate vulnerable zones for the purposes of these Regulations.\n(2) In deciding whether to revise or add to the designation of nitrate vulnerable zones for the purposes of regulation 4(5)(d), the Secretary of State must have regard to the recommendations made under paragraph (1).\n(3) Before revising or adding to the designation of nitrate vulnerable zones, the Secretary of State must , (except where paragraph (3A) applies)—\n(a) publish the proposals to revise or add to the designation, and\n(b) send written notice to any person appearing to the Secretary of State to be the owner or occupier of a relevant holding.\n(3A) Where the Secretary of State revises or adds to the designation of nitrate vulnerable zones before 1st January 2017, the Secretary of State must—\n(a) by 31st December 2016, publish the proposals to revise or add to the designation on the Agency’s website;\n(b) by 1st March 2017, send written notice to any person appearing to the Secretary of State to be the owner or occupier of a relevant holding.\n(4) A notice under paragraph (3)(b) or (3A)(b) must contain—\n(a) a reference to the page on the Agency’s or Secretary of State’s website on which can be found the Secretary of State’s proposals or, in the case of a notice under paragraph (3A)(b) where the designation has already been revised or added to, the designation,\n(b) information about other means of obtaining the information mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) which do not require access to the internet.\n(5) In this regulation and regulation 6, “relevant holding” means land and any associated buildings at the disposal of the occupier—\n(a) which are used for growing crops in soil or rearing livestock for agricultural purposes, and\n(b) which are wholly or partly in an area which the Secretary of State has proposed should be, or should continue to be, designated as a nitrate vulnerable zone for the purposes of these Regulations , or which the Secretary of State has so designated.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+NI",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words in reg. 5(1) substituted (29.3.2019) by The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Miscellaneous Amendments etc.) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/526), regs. 1(2), 5(5)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in reg. 5(3) inserted (31.12.2016) by The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1190), regs. 1(1), 4(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Reg. 5(3A) inserted (31.12.2016) by The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1190), regs. 1(1), 4(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words in reg. 5(4) inserted (31.12.2016) by The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1190), regs. 1(1), 4(c)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F5",
      "text": "Reg. 5(4)(a) substituted (31.12.2016) by The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1190), regs. 1(1), 4(d)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F6",
      "text": "Words in reg. 5(4)(b) inserted (31.12.2016) by The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1190), regs. 1(1), 4(e)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/668/regulation/5",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T23:42:55.288035+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}