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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to increase coordination between (a) the Environment Agency, (b) local authorities and (c) police forces to tackle organised waste crime.

The Joint Unit for Waste Crime, hosted by the Environment Agency, is a multi-agency taskforce established specifically to share intelligence and operational capability and capacity to tackle serious and organised criminality in the waste sector. When appropriate, this includes liaison and intelligence sharing with local authorities’

Since its formation in 2020 it has significantly enhanced interoperability and cooperation among criminal justice partners including the police, enabling more effective targeting of Organised Criminal Groups.