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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on Wednesday 14 January (HL Deb col 1727), what specific plans they have to provide (1) practical, and (2) financial, assistance to the victims of organised waste tipping on private land to support them with the cost and difficulty of removing the waste and cleaning the affected land.

The Government is committed to tackling waste crime and continues to keep under review how best to do this.

It is a long-established policy that landowners are responsible for clearing dumped or abandoned waste from their land.

We continue to work with stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Union (NFU) and local authorities, through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to share good practice, including how to prevent fly-tipping on private land. The Environment Agency also conducts communications campaigns around tackling and preventing waste crime, including working through landowner associations such as the NFU or The Country Land and Business Association.

We recognise the financial burden that clearing fly-tipped waste places on landowners. However, central Government generally does not compensate victims of non-violent crime. It is important not to create a perverse incentive for some people to dump, or facilitate the dumping of, waste. However, where there is sufficient evidence, fly-tippers can be prosecuted and, on conviction, a cost order can be made by the court so that a landowner’s costs can be recovered from the perpetrator.