Oral Answers to Questions

Craig Tracey Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Theresa Villiers]

I can reassure the hon. Lady that a Conservative Government will put this Bill on the Order Paper very soon after we are re-elected to serve this country.

[Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire) (Con)]

8. What plans her Department has to tackle waste crime.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Theresa Villiers)]

Waste crime blights local communities and the environment, and we are committed to tackling it. We have given the Environment Agency £60 million extra to tackle waste crime since 2014. The Environment Bill takes forward a number of commitments on preventing, detecting and deterring waste crime.

[Craig Tracey]

Fly-tipping is a scourge in many communities across North Warwickshire and Bedworth, and it costs councils and local landowners hundreds of thousands of pounds to clear up, but it is often unwittingly facilitated by householders failing to ask whether a valid waste licence is in place. What steps can householders take to check that there is a valid licence, so that they do not unwittingly become the recipient of a fine themselves?

[Theresa Villiers]

Householders can check using the carrier’s business name or registration number, which the carrier should be able to give them on request, and they have the opportunity to check those against the details on the Environment Agency website, or by ringing the Environment Agency helpline.