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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help reduce fly-tipping in suburban and semi-rural areas.

Fly-tipping is a serious crime which blights communities and places significant costs on both taxpayers and businesses.

Local authorities are responsible for tackling fly-tipping in their local areas and we want to see an effective enforcement strategy at the centre of their efforts to tackle the problem. We are taking steps to help councils make good use of their powers, including seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance to local authorities. We are reviewing local authority powers to seize and crush vehicles of fly-tippers and we intend to publish guidance to support councils to make better use of this tool soon.

In our manifesto we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.

Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities and the National Farmers Union to share good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping, including on private land. The NFTPG has developed various practical tools, guidance and case studies highlighting best practice. These are available at: https://nftpg.com/.