"is recommended": pattern?

I know that possible patterns for recommend are:

The teacher recommended (that) we should read that book.
The teacher recommended that we read that book.
The teacher recommended reading that book.

but not:

*The teacher recommended to read that book.

What about the passive form? Is to be recommended + infinitive possible? Today I came across the following sentence in an academic paper written by a British scholar:

"The reader is recommended to read White (2000) in order to understand the evolution of the public perception methodology",

which sounded odd to me. Honestly, I don’t know what I would’ve written, though … Maybe:

• (a) It is recommended that the reader read … (ugh!)
• (b) The reader is recommended that he should read …

However, I did a bit of search on the net in British websites only and I found a great deal of occurrences for “is recommended to”. Even leaving aside those where “is recommended to” is actually followed by a noun, there’s still an impressive number of hits for “is recommended to” + verb; moreover, many of them are in governmental websites. For instance,

The Committee is recommended to note membership of Functional Bodies and London Borough Councils and …
The Board is recommended to agree the revised timetable ...
The Lead Member is recommended to agree an interim charging policy based on …

I'd like to ask some questions:

1. Is really this pattern ok in the passive?
2. If yes, is it common/formal/legalese?
3. How would native speakers use “recommend” in the passive?
   
4. Would sentences (a) and (b) be possible?
   

Thank you in advance!