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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the capacity of the digital waste tracking service to tackle waste crime.

Waste handled illegally and poor performing waste sites can damage the environment, blight local communities, for example by causing odour and pest issues, undermine legitimate businesses, and is estimated to cost the UK economy one billion pounds per year.

Digital waste tracking will connect fragmented systems, providing comprehensive near real time data on the movement of a load of waste from production to disposal. Digitising record keeping will give clearer oversight for regulators, making it easier for waste producers and legitimate waste companies to comply with reporting requirements; and harder for rogue operators to compete in the industry and commit waste crime, from fly tipping to illegal waste sites to illegal waste exports.