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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the measures in place to tackle (a) littering and (b) flytipping in Kent.

Fly-tipping and littering blight communities and harm the environment. Local councils are usually best placed to assess the measures in place to address the local littering and fly-tipping problems in their area. No specific assessment of the effectiveness of measures in place to tackle littering and fly-tipping in Kent has been made.

Local authorities have enforcement powers to tackle these issues, including fixed penalty notices of up to £1000 for fly-tipping and £500 for littering and prosecution action, which can lead to significant fine or even imprisonment. We encourage councils to make good use of their enforcement powers and are considering what further steps we can take to assist them in doing so.

We committed to forcing fly-tippers and vandals to clean up the mess that they have created as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour. We will provide further details on this commitment, and other actions to tackle fly-tipping, in due course.