Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce (a) fly-tipping and (b) the impacts of fly-tipping on (i) natural environments and (ii) natural environments in rural areas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are encouraging councils to take tougher action against fly-tippers. Under the Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan we have significantly increased the upper limit on fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping to £1,000 and the income from these penalties must now be reinvested in enforcement or cleaning up sites affected by fly-tipping, such as natural environments.
We appreciate the difficulty that fly-tipping poses to landowners. 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 new 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 £2.2m to help more than 50 councils tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots, including in rural areas, such as by installing CCTV. In addition to supporting more infrastructure, the latest round of projects will also help to raise awareness of the household waste duty of care to reduce the chance of waste getting into the hands of fly-tippers in the first place. A selection of case studies from earlier projects have been published so that others can learn about those interventions which were most successful. These are available here.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough)
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 Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, which is a blight on our local communities and the environment and damages legitimate businesses. We have strengthened regulators' powers, are tightening the law and have increased the Environment Agency's budget by £10 million per year to make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. We are also providing grants to councils across the country to help them purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping. North Northamptonshire council has been awarded £25,176 in the recently announced third round of the Fly-tipping Intervention Grant scheme.
Waste crime in the constituency is addressed at several partnerships, the Northants Waste Enforcement Group, North Northamptonshire Community Safety Partnership and the Acquisitive and Rural Crime Group. All partnerships are linked on serious waste crime and fly-tipping by attendance of the same Environment Agency officer. This ensures information and intelligence is shared effectively.
Engagement and information sharing directs where collaboration is most needed at any time in the county. Wellingborough is also covered by the Northants Project Plutus Partnership, the first in England to identify waste crime as a priority for cash-based money laundering. Project Plutus information sharing led directly to an Environment Agency-led intervention with Police and North Northants Council stopping a large-scale illegal waste operation that had potential to impact neighbouring Wellingborough. This is a significant investigation due to go to trial.
The highly effective Operation Clean Sweep multi-agency days of action have been taking place in the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Environment Agency area. The intention is for the Environment Agency to extend this into North Northamptonshire and, when required, into Wellingborough.
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.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of existing legislation to tackle common nuisances such as (a) smoke, (b) bonfires, (c) smells and fumes, (d) accumulation of rubbish, (e) infestations and (f) litter.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are the main enforcers of the statutory nuisance regime under the Environmental Protection Act, 1990. The Government considers that any issues that could be the cause of statutory nuisance, including smoke, bonfire and smells are best dealt with at a local level. Local authorities need to be able to take account of local circumstances when determining how best to apply the powers available to them, such as issuing abatement orders.
Owners of industrial, trade and business premises are expected to use the best practicable means available to reduce smoke, smells and fumes and other potential sources of statutory nuisance emanating from their place of work in the first place.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 also sets out clear responsibilities for local authorities with regards to keeping land clear of litter and refuse and provides them with strong enforcement powers to help them do this. Anyone caught littering or fly-tipping may be prosecuted which can lead to a significant fine or even imprisonment in the case of fly-tipping. Instead of prosecuting, councils may decide to issue a fixed penalty (on-the-spot fine). We increased the upper limit for fly-tipping and littering fixed penalties to £1000 and £500 respectively in July 2023 and as of 1 April 2024 councils must now reinvest income from these penalties in enforcement and clean up.
Additionally, we provide guidance on how councils can discharge their duties and use their enforcement powers and have recently consulted key stakeholders on putting our current litter enforcement guidance on a statutory footing.
The Secretary of State considers the current legislation provides local authorities with the necessary powers to deal with these types of nuisance issues.
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 fly tipping in rural areas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We appreciate the difficulty that fly-tipping poses to landowners. We are working with stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Union and local authorities, through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to share good practice, including how to prevent fly-tipping on private land.
As part of the government’s commitment to unleash rural opportunity, we are currently funding a post within the new 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 two rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme, we have awarded nearly £1.2m to help more than 30 councils tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots, including in rural areas, such as by installing CCTV. Round three is currently in progress and should see a further £1 million handed out in the spring to help even more councils tackle fly-tipping.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the National Rural Crime Network's report Rural Crime: Serious, Organised and International, published on 10 March.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We welcome the National Rural Crime Network’s report and will consider its recommendations.
This Government is committed to tackling the threat from Serious and Organised Crime (SOC). In December 2023, we published the 2023 Serious and Organised Crime Strategy that commits to reducing SOC in the UK by disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups and networks operating in and against the UK.
Serious and organised crime is a major threat to the national security and prosperity of the UK. It costs lives, blights communities, hampers economic growth, and corrodes the global reputation of the UK and its institutions.
Additionally, the Government recognises that there can be particular challenges in responding to rural crime and welcomed the rural and wildlife crime strategy published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in September 2022.
The Home Office provided £200,000 for the National Rural Crime Unit to tackle rural crime including the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime. We will continue to work closely with the NRCU to help ensure an effective police response to rural crime.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional resources they have provided to police forces to combat the increase in organised crime in rural areas.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office ensures that the police have the resources they need. Ultimately, it is for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), and Mayors with PCC functions, to make operational decisions based on their local knowledge and experience. This includes how to allocate resources to reduce levels of organised crime.
Chief Constables, PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions have provided significant resource to the Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) network by allocating 725 extra officers to ROCUs between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2023. Those officers are tackling the range of SOC threats, helping to reduce crime and keep communities safe.
The Government also recognises that there can be particular challenges in responding to rural crime and welcomed the rural and wildlife crime strategy published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in September 2022.
Additionally, the Home Office provided £200,000 for the National Rural Crime Unit to tackle rural crime including the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
The Government is committed to tackling the threat from Serious and Organised Crime (SOC). It has recently published a new SOC strategy that commits to reducing SOC in the UK by disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups and networks operating in and against the UK.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the delivery of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are making good progress on implementation of the Government’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan that was published in March 2023. We have banned nitrous oxide, increased fines for fly-tipping, littering and graffiti, and over 80,000 hours of uniformed patrols have been undertaken, targeting areas blighted by anti-social behaviour in 10 police force areas.
From 1st April we will be providing funding of £66m to every police force in England and Wales to support a hotspot enforcement approach for both anti-social behaviour and serious violence across England and Wales from April onwards.
We are strengthening police and local authority powers to tackle anti-social behaviour through a number of measures in the Criminal Justice Bill.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council in tackling fly-tipping.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The PM’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan sets out how we will help councils across the country take tougher action against those who fly-tip. Last year we raised the upper limit on the fixed penalty notices councils can issue for fly-tipping to £1,000 and from 1 April 2024 income from these penalties will be ringfenced for enforcement and clean-up specifically.
With the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, we are also developing a toolkit to help councils and others tackle fly-tipping. This includes guides on raising awareness of the household and business waste duty of care, presenting robust cases to court and setting up effective local partnerships. The toolkit, and other resources, are available at https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/national-fly-tipping-prevention-group.
We have also published a selection of case studies from projects which have received funding through our fly-tipping intervention grant scheme so that others can learn about those interventions which were most successful. These can be found at https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/fly-tipping-intervention-grant-scheme.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to increasing the fixed-penalty fine for fly-tipping to a maximum of £2,000.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Prime Minister’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan, the Government recently raised the upper limit on the fixed penalty notices councils can issue to £1,000 for fly-tipping and £600 for householders who pass their waste to an unlicensed waste carrier. This reflects the increased severity with which the Government views these crimes and allows councils to take tougher action against fly-tippers.
We will continue to work with local authorities to assess the impacts of these changes. There are no plans to increase the fixed penalty levels further at this time.
Local authorities also have powers to stop, search and seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers and to prosecute offenders, which can lead to an unlimited fine or imprisonment if convicted in court.