Fly-tipping
Debate between Mary Creagh and Paulette Hamilton(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Mary Creagh
My hon. Friend is absolutely right.
I want to correct the record on what the shadow Minister said about the waste figures, because the methodology changed in 2019-20. In that year, there were 980,000 incidents of fly-tipping. The numbers to 2022-23 increased by 10.5% to 1.08 million incidents, so the numbers and the trend lines are all going in the wrong direction.
My hon. Friend the Member for Telford (Shaun Davies) made an absolutely valid point. Far too often, when people come to collect stuff from households, we are hiring Messrs Bodgit and Scarper. We need to make sure that the carrier number is printed on the side.
On the point about the DVLA, we all have access to DVLA tax and MOT information on our phones. It cannot be beyond the wit of officials to make sure that the databases are joined up. It does introduce complexity, but we are actively looking at that.
Whether someone lives in the countryside or in a city, they should be able to take pride in their place. The story told by my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) of people climbing over rubbish to get out of their house in an emergency is simply intolerable in the sixth richest country in the world.
Local authorities have reported over 1 million incidents, and the cost to local authorities was £392 million in 2018-19. That is why our manifesto committed to taking back our streets from the fly-tippers and vandals and forcing them to clear up the mess they have created as part of a crackdown to tackle antisocial behaviour.
The National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group has produced guidance to help councils to present robust cases to court, but where the gain is not worth the candle because the fines are too low or the fly-tippers are allegedly too poor, we need to get a little cannier about what we do and how we get back to the principle of polluter pays. As the shadow Minister said, fixed penalty notices can be issued, as can notices of up to £1,000 or £600 to the householder who passes on their waste to someone without a proper licence, but we need to educate the public about their responsibilities as well.
We recognise the efforts made by the London borough of Ealing to tackle the issue. It is in the top 10% of councils for issuing fixed penalty notices and I hope it will continue to do that good work. There are lessons to be learned from throughout the country. According to our statistics, the council did not carry out any prosecutions, so we encourage it to use its powers to the full.
Mary Creagh
I really have to make progress because I will run out of time.
On the waste carrier, broker and dealer regime, who gets to carry the licences? We heard of a dead dog called Oscar signing up for a waste permitting licence. Over the last 14 years the scheme has been wide open for criminals and abuse. We need to make reforms and make it easier for regulators to enforce against non-compliant operators—for example, by requiring the permit numbers to be displayed on their advertising.
We want to make waste digital—we want to track waste and to know where it goes—and we will lay legislation next year to provide transparency in the waste system. Whether it is with councils, individuals or businesses, we must continue to work together. In rural areas, we must work with the National Farmers Union and the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, using toolkits and helping to spread best practice. Some 80% of farmers in rural areas have said that they have been affected by fly-tipping.
To come back to where my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall finished, we have to reduce waste in the first place. There is no such place as away. We will move to a circular economy. Everything that is not put back into the system through a deposit return scheme—I hope we will see legislation on that very soon—is a waste to our economy. We will convene a taskforce of experts from industry, academia, civil society and beyond to develop a circular economy strategy.