Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues about tackling illegal waste sites in a) Staffordshire and b) England.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Secretary of State meets regularly with Cabinet colleagues and discusses a wide range of issues including tackling illegal waste sites and other kinds of waste crime. I hold similar discussions on a regular basis with the Environment Agency.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will consider the potential merits of developing a stand alone waste crime strategy.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is committed to transitioning towards a circular economy where resources are kept in use for longer and waste is designed out. The Government convened a Circular Economy Taskforce of experts to help map that transition; in the new year we will publish a Circular Economy Growth Plan that sets out how government will deliver a more circular and more prosperous economy.

Waste crime threatens this by undermining waste businesses and by taking resources away from that circular economy. The priority is to focus on tangible action to address waste crime, including working with the Environment Agency to drive improvements, swift delivery of our planned reforms and our transition to a circular economy.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Environment Agency's budget.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Department works closely with the Environment Agency (EA) at every level to provide constructive challenge and support on performance and to closely monitor funding to ensure it can carry out its duties effectively and deliver for the public and the environment.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the cost to the public purse of waste crime.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government has made no recent assessment. The Environmental Services Association estimated in 2021 that waste crime costs the economy in England about £1 billion per year.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what fiscal steps she plans to take to cut levels of waste crime in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme, b) Staffordshire and c) England.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In addition to driving forward the policy and regulatory reforms designed to close the loopholes being exploited by criminals, we are also increasing the resources available to the Environment Agency (EA). The EA’s total budget for 2025 to 2026 has increased and includes £15.6 million for waste crime enforcement. This is a more than 50% increase from 2024/25. Overall, the EA has been able to increase its frontline criminal enforcement resource in the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and area environmental crime teams across England by 43 full-time staff.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) Health and Safety Executive policy not to adopt new hazard classes in GB CLP unless agreed at the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of classification and labelling of chemicals (UN GHS) and (b) proposed legislative changes by HSE that would remove the statutory obligation on it to respond to new EU hazard classifications within a statutory timeframe on trade within the UK internal market.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently sought views on the application of a consistent UK-wide Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regime as part of the Chemicals Legislative Reform Proposals consultation which took place from 23 June 2025 to 18 August 2025. This included seeking views on whether the adoption of EU CLP measures in GB, including the EU hazard classes, would be one way of minimising possible trade disruption in the UK Internal Market. The consultation response is expected to be published in early 2026 subject to ministerial approval and the responses received will be used to inform future work to deliver a consistent UK-wide CLP regime. In the meantime, the current GB CLP framework allows duty holders to self-classify against the new EU hazard classes and for HSE to evaluate proposals for substances covered by the EU hazard classes to be added to the GB Mandatory Classification and Labelling List on a case-by-case basis.

Christmas (No. 2)

The achievement of Mr Atushi Horiba

Walker's Shortbread Exporter of the Year