Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Environment Agency records information on habitat type or proximity to woodland when investigating fly-tipping and illegal waste dumping incidents.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually here. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is currently being processed.
Local authorities are required to report to Defra the size of a fly-tipping incident, its waste type and the land-type where it occurred. However, this does not cover if the area is a particular habitat or a woodland.
Defra regularly evaluates the data on fly-tipping incidents we collect from local authorities. There are no current plans to require local authorities to report additional data on fly-tipping to Defra.
While the Environment Agency (EA) collects data on the land type at the location of an illegal dumping incident and its environmental impact, the EA does not routinely collect data on whether it is a woodland area or the specific habitat type.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the extent to which large-scale fly-tipping incidents, including transit van loads, tipper lorry loads, and significant or multiple-load incidents, have occurred on woodland habitat.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually here. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is currently being processed.
Local authorities are required to report to Defra the size of a fly-tipping incident, its waste type and the land-type where it occurred. However, this does not cover if the area is a particular habitat or a woodland.
Defra regularly evaluates the data on fly-tipping incidents we collect from local authorities. There are no current plans to require local authorities to report additional data on fly-tipping to Defra.
While the Environment Agency (EA) collects data on the land type at the location of an illegal dumping incident and its environmental impact, the EA does not routinely collect data on whether it is a woodland area or the specific habitat type.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the extent to which fly-tipping incidents occur on or adjacent to woodland habitat on (a) council-owned land, (b) footpaths and bridleways, and (c) other land types.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually here. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is currently being processed.
Local authorities are required to report to Defra the size of a fly-tipping incident, its waste type and the land-type where it occurred. However, this does not cover if the area is a particular habitat or a woodland.
Defra regularly evaluates the data on fly-tipping incidents we collect from local authorities. There are no current plans to require local authorities to report additional data on fly-tipping to Defra.
While the Environment Agency (EA) collects data on the land type at the location of an illegal dumping incident and its environmental impact, the EA does not routinely collect data on whether it is a woodland area or the specific habitat type.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information her Department and its arm’s-length bodies hold on the number of recorded fly-tipping incidents in England in 2023–24 that occurred on or adjacent to woodland.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually here. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is currently being processed.
Local authorities are required to report to Defra the size of a fly-tipping incident, its waste type and the land-type where it occurred. However, this does not cover if the area is a particular habitat or a woodland.
Defra regularly evaluates the data on fly-tipping incidents we collect from local authorities. There are no current plans to require local authorities to report additional data on fly-tipping to Defra.
While the Environment Agency (EA) collects data on the land type at the location of an illegal dumping incident and its environmental impact, the EA does not routinely collect data on whether it is a woodland area or the specific habitat type.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to improve the collection of data on the environmental impacts of fly-tipping on habitats.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually here. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is currently being processed.
Local authorities are required to report to Defra the size of a fly-tipping incident, its waste type and the land-type where it occurred. However, this does not cover if the area is a particular habitat or a woodland.
Defra regularly evaluates the data on fly-tipping incidents we collect from local authorities. There are no current plans to require local authorities to report additional data on fly-tipping to Defra.
While the Environment Agency (EA) collects data on the land type at the location of an illegal dumping incident and its environmental impact, the EA does not routinely collect data on whether it is a woodland area or the specific habitat type.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether local authorities are required to record the habitat type affected by each reported fly-tipping incident.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually here. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is currently being processed.
Local authorities are required to report to Defra the size of a fly-tipping incident, its waste type and the land-type where it occurred. However, this does not cover if the area is a particular habitat or a woodland.
Defra regularly evaluates the data on fly-tipping incidents we collect from local authorities. There are no current plans to require local authorities to report additional data on fly-tipping to Defra.
While the Environment Agency (EA) collects data on the land type at the location of an illegal dumping incident and its environmental impact, the EA does not routinely collect data on whether it is a woodland area or the specific habitat type.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many recorded incidents of fly-tipping in each of the last five years took place in or adjacent to areas designated as (a) Sites of Special Scientific Interest, (b) Special Protection Areas and (c) Special Areas of Conservation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fly-tipping (or the illegal dumping of waste) should generally be reported to the relevant local authority wherever it occurs (see guidance at https://www.gov.uk/report-flytipping). Local authorities and the Environment Agency have existing powers to require landowners to clear fly-tipped waste from their land.
With regard to statutory protected sites ie (a) Sites of Special Scientific Interest, (b) Special Protection Areas and (c) Special Areas of Conservation, Natural England would be dependent on direct observations or reports shared from other public bodies or other stakeholders. Please note that all non-marine Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation will be underpinned by Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England may be more likely to be informed about incidents within protected sites than adjacent to. The numbers of ‘dumping cases’* recorded by Natural England from the last five years are shown in the table below:
Year | No. Dumping cases |
2018-22 | 10 |
2022-23 | 3 |
2023-24 | 0 |
2024-25 | 6 |
This is based on Natural England’s casework tracker and published enforcement reports, which does not easily enable cases to be listed separately by protected site type. These cases will relate to Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
* Natural England does not explicitly record fly tipping but it is recorded within a ‘Dumping’ category which could also include land owners using sites to store waste.
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
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.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a single reporting mechanism for farmers and land managers to report fly-tipping incidents.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local councils are responsible for investigating most fly-tipping incidents, including those on private land. The gov.uk site has a single page entitled ‘Report Flytipping or Illegal Waste Dumping’ which directs people either to the relevant local authority via postcode search or to Crimestoppers, depending on the scale of what is being reported.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are bringing forward to co-ordinate joint working between police forces to tackle fly-tipping.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are responsible for investigating most fly-tipping incidents. Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities and the National Police Chiefs Council, to share good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping. The NFTPG has developed various practical tools including a guide on how councils can set up and run effective local partnerships, such as with the police, to tackle fly-tipping. These are available at: https://nftpg.com/.