Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the economic impact of waste crime and landfill tax fraud.

Waste crime – including landfill tax fraud - is a blight on local communities, harms the environment and undermines legitimate businesses operating in the waste sector. The government is committed to tackling this issue, through a multi-agency response led by Defra and the Joint Unit for Waste Crime.

The government regularly publishes an assessment of the tax gap across the tax system. HMRC has collected and protected over £800m in additional Landfill Tax since 2018 with ever closer collaboration between government departments to make this possible and lay the foundations for further strengthening the regime.

As part of next steps on the Landfill Tax Review, the government will consider the impact of any potential changes to the tax on Landfill Tax fraud, evasion and waste crime and the interaction of potential changes with upcoming environmental regulatory reforms designed to improve compliance and tackle waste crime.