Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to help tackle waste crime in rural areas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, and we are preparing significant reforms to continue to increase the pressure on illegal waste operators. Reform of the waste exemptions regime will close loopholes and prevent exemptions from being misused to permit risky and illegal activity. Our planned electronic waste tracking reforms will make it harder than ever to mis-identify waste or dispose of it inappropriately. Planned changes to the Carriers, Brokers and Dealers licensing regime will modernise licensing and make it harder still for rogue operators to escape detection. These will come in addition to measures in the Environment Act 2021 which gives agencies stronger powers of entry and access to evidence in prosecuting waste crime as well as providing the Environment Agency with the ability to recover costs of investigation, intervention and enforcement at illegal or non-compliant waste sites.
The Government also launched the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC). It brings together the Environment Agency, HM Revenue & Customs, the National Crime Agency, the police, waste regulators from across the UK and other operational partners to share intelligence and tasking to disrupt and prevent serious organised waste crime. Since its launch the JUWC has worked with 131 partner organisations and engaged in 253 multi-agency days of action, which have resulted in 180 associated arrests by other agencies.
Alongside this we are working with stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Union and local authorities, to share good practice including how to prevent fly-tipping on private land. We are also currently funding a post within the National Rural Crime Unit to explore how the police’s role in tacking fly-tipping can be optimised, with a focus on rural areas.
Across three rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme we have now awarded nearly £2.2 million to help more than 50 councils tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots, including in rural areas, such as by installing CCTV and raising awareness of the household waste duty of care. Case studies from completed projects have been published so that others can learn from successful interventions.
May. 21 2024
Source Page: Consistent municipal recycling collections in England: RPC Opinion (Green-rated)Found: businesses find it difficult to sort waste appropriately or could potentially lead to increase in fly
Written Evidence May. 21 2024
Inquiry: ProbateFound: family members, concerned neighbours would contact the council to report incidents such as vermin, fly-tipping
Mentions:
1: Lennon, Monica (Lab - Central Scotland) Fly-tipping is a universal problem across Scotland. - Speech Link
2: Martin, Gillian (SNP - Aberdeenshire East) I recognise that fly-tipping is a scourge. - Speech Link
3: Martin, Gillian (SNP - Aberdeenshire East) What more can we do to deter people from fly-tipping? - Speech Link
4: Martin, Gillian (SNP - Aberdeenshire East) There is a fly-tipping forum and the national litter and fly-tipping strategy has been delivered, as - Speech Link
5: Doris, Bob (SNP - Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) We have already heard about issues with data on fly-tipping. - Speech Link
May. 18 2024
Source Page: £1m fund to help more councils combat fly-tippingFound: £1m fund to help more councils combat fly-tipping
May. 16 2024
Source Page: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2023Found: officers in the regulated sectorTEWMiscellaneous crimes against society38 Money laundering0380703807 - Tipping
Oral Evidence May. 15 2024
Inquiry: MethaneFound: We saw a 13% increase in large-scale fly-tipping between 2021 and 2022.
Mentions:
1: Lord Geddes (Con - Excepted Hereditary) will hark back to a Question we had yesterday: is there any correlation between Traveller sites and fly-tipping - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Caroline Lucas (Green - Brighton, Pavilion) a disaster for the individual species concerned, including my favourite bird, the swift, which can fly - Speech Link
2: Theresa Villiers (Con - Chipping Barnet) deforestation; measures to transform our waste and recycling system; and measures to crack down on litter and fly-tipping - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Eagle, Tim (Con - Highlands and Islands) Examples can range from leaving a field gate open or littering along a footpath, to livestock worrying and fly-tipping - Speech Link
2: Gougeon, Mairi (SNP - Angus North and Mearns) Amendments 202 and 203 directly contradict that and fly in the face of what we have tried to set out. - Speech Link