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 tackle (a) fly tipping and (b) littering in Gloucester.

Local councils are usually best placed to respond to littering and fly-tipping problems, in a way tailored to the community in which they occur. They have a range of enforcement tools at their disposal including fixed penalty notices and prosecution. We are reviewing how we can further support local authorities to tackle these issues.

We are also considering how to most effectively deliver our manifesto commitment to force fly-tippers and vandals to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details in due course.

In the meantime, Defra will continue to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders such as local authorities, the Environment Agency and National Police Chiefs Council, to promote and disseminate good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping.