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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the application process for licences from the Environment Agency to collect and transport waste in order to prevent illegal fly-tipping.

Fly-tipping is a crime which blights local communities and the environment, and the Government is committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour.

The Government is committed to improving the carrier, broker and dealer (CBD) regime in England and we plan to consult later this year. We want to enhance the background checks needed to operate as a waste carrier, broker or dealer and introduce an element of technical competence as a requirement. We also plan to make it easier for regulators to enforce against non-compliant operators and to make it harder for un-registered operators to find work in the sector. We are working with industry and the regulator as we develop our consultation.

We also intend to consult on the introduction of mandatory electronic waste tracking. This will reduce the ability of waste criminals to hide evidence of the systematic mishandling of waste and make it easier for enforcement authorities to identify material dropping out of the system, and therefore make it easier to protect against fly-tipping. Together these measures will ensure all businesses will be made more accountable for the waste they handle, help to ensure that waste is dealt with appropriately and therefore help to reduce the incidence of waste crime and fly-tipping.