Government Political Priorities and Legislative Agenda

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, I am pleased that we are having this very necessary debate, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for moving it, not least because it gives me a chance to highlight my Private Member’s Bill targeting waste crime. It is a critical issue that I am delighted to say the Prime Minister himself has prioritised for action—not just words this time, we hope.

Last year, the report on waste crime by your Lordships’ Environment and Climate Change Committee, which I chair, drew attention to the appalling illegal dump at Hoads Wood, a protected SSSI site in Kent. Despite persistent warnings from local residents to the council, the Environment Agency and the police, nothing was done. The week after our report appeared, the notorious Kidlington dump was discovered, with over 20,000 tonnes of illegal waste. These are not one-off cases. Numerous other super-sites continue to blight communities for years without intervention, not least the dreadful site in Bickershaw, Wigan, in the Prime Minister’s own constituency—that may have had something to do with the prioritisation; I do hope so. Around 38 million tonnes of waste are illegally managed each year. The waste services representative body, the Environmental Services Association, estimates lost tax revenue at £2 billion each year, which is double the official estimates.

While criminals profit from this low-risk, high-reward enterprise, the financial burden of clean-up falls squarely on taxpayers and private landlords. Organised crime groups are comprehensively outmanoeuvring our enforcement bodies. To solve this crisis, we must trace the waste to its source and turn off the tap. Rather than continuously using public money to rectify environmental and community damage, my Private Member’s Bill—the Corporate Waste Responsibility Bill—addresses the problem at its roots.

The Bill is simple. It holds large corporations legally and financially accountable for the waste they produce or control by, first, requiring large companies to designate a named director to be responsible for enforcing statutory waste duty of care compliance. That means overseeing the journey of the waste from its production to its final resting place. Secondly, it imposes direct financial liability on these corporations for the clearance and remediation of their waste whenever it is mismanaged and the duty of care standards are breached. By establishing clear board-level accountability and ensuring that businesses bear the financial responsibility for their waste, this legislation aims to halt illegal waste sites and dismantle waste crime before it begins. I hope the new Secretary of State and the Prime Minister will give it their support.