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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total Environment Agency expenditure on pursuing and bringing to prosecution illegal waste operators in (1) 2016, and (2) 2017.

The Environment Agency (EA) collates expenditure data by financial year rather than calendar year. For both 2015-16 and 2016-17 spend on waste crime enforcement was estimated at £14.8 million per year. Data is not yet available for 2017-18.

This funding comes through Grant in Aid and the Landfill Communities Fund. The EA’s success in tackling waste crime led to an additional £30 million of funding over the next four years, announced in the Autumn 2017 budget. This will increase funding allocated to waste crime enforcement by approximately £5 million per year in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and by approximately £10 million per year in 2020-21 and 2021-22.