Crime and Policing Bill

Lord Cromwell Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Carter of Haslemere (CB)]

My Lords, I strongly support the intention and spirit of Amendment 13. Fly-tipping shows a shocking disregard for other people, the local community, society and the environment. It is not right that the cost of removing the consequences of it fall on the victims, as has been said, at huge expense.

My point is a technical one about the way that this amendment is drafted. I do not think that imposing this liability in guidance is the right way to go about it. Guidance is not normally legally binding. Those to whom it is addressed have to have regard to it, simply—even if it is laid before Parliament with a stronger procedure, as I think the Government are proposing. In my view, the right way to do it is by an amendment to Section 33(8) and (9) of the Environmental Protection Act, where the penalties for the offence are set out. That would be the correct place to put it. That is the approach taken in Amendment 19, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower. While I strongly support the amendment, and would vote for it in any Division, I think the way it is drafted is not quite right.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a director of a farming company that is regularly the victim of fly-tipping of various scales.

I agree absolutely with every word that the noble Viscount shared with us a little while ago. I would add that the waste, often toxic waste, piled up on land is getting into the watercourses. This is a serious issue. Very often, landowners, even if they have the wherewithal to finance its removal, which many of them do not, do not have the technical expertise to deal with toxic waste. I spoke about this in Committee, so I am not going to go on in great detail, but it is a huge problem and every day it is getting worse.

The current legislation, which I have probed through Written Questions, is absolutely clear that the local authorities have no responsibility currently to do anything to assist, either through punitive legislation, assisting in the clean-up or by financially supporting those who are trying to do the clean-up. There is no support at all. We cannot allow this to continue. These amendments are a good start in the right direction.

To illustrate that, I will share one experience that I had. On a farm track, a large amount of building materials and other unpleasant items was tipped out of a truck. The perpetrators were so confident of not being caught or punished that they even threw on the pile the parking ticket that they had got earlier that day with the registration number. I called the police, who, to their credit, came out; we looked at it together, and afterwards I spent the weekend clearing it up. I showed the parking ticket to the policeman, who said, “Yes, that’s all very helpful, but I am not going to tell you whose vehicle it is in case you do something. I can assure you that, if we were to contact the people whose vehicle this is, they will simply say, ‘A lot of people drive that truck; it wasn’t me. I don’t know who it was; all sorts of people drive it’, and nothing will happen”. No further action was taken. That is one tiny example of the sort of things that people in rural areas face with waste, which is mainly generated in cities and simply taken out into the countryside and dumped with complete impunity.

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[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

My Lords, I support all the amendments in this group, particularly Amendment 20, to which I have attached my name. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, and the exemplary speech made by my noble friend Lord Goschen.

I have a more positive story that I read in the Times—I think noble Lords will also have read it—about a very public-spirited parish councillor in the Cotswolds, I think in Gloucestershire, who picked up a McDonald’s paper bag that contained a receipt, again, for a purchase of a McDonald’s meal. This very public-spirited and diligent parish councillor went to McDonald’s, which was able to use its CCTV coverage to identify the car and the driver. To their credit, Gloucestershire Police fined that gentleman £500. The slight downside for the public-spirited parish councillor was that that gentleman was one of his village neighbours, so conversations at the pub were probably quite awkward from thence on.

But seriously, I am delighted that there is a debate on this issue. Litter picking and fly-tipping used to be quite a niche issue. It is now considered a much more serious issue, as it should be, and I am pleased that my own Front Bench and Government Ministers are taking it seriously. As alluded to by the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, in 2022-23, clearing up serious instances of fly-tipping cost local authorities £50 million. That does not sound like a lot of money, but it is £50 million not spent on other services. As the noble Lord quite rightly said, fly-tipping often involves hazardous materials, such as asbestos, tyres and chemical waste that contaminate not just water but air and farmland generally.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

I am very grateful for the kind things that the noble Lord is saying. To clarify, local authorities will clear up fly-tipping that is on the verge of the highway. Although it is not anywhere in law, if it is beyond 10 metres from there, it is your problem and they will not clear it up.

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right and that point was very strongly made in trenchant remarks by my noble friend about the issue in Kidlington. He is right that fly-tipping disproportionately affects farmland and farmers have, as he knows, very little legal recourse. It also affects deprived urban areas. I believe that, in bringing forward action in primary and secondary legislation, we need to stigmatise those who would despoil the land.

I am a regular cyclist, and it is quite dispiriting and depressing to cycle around the rural parts of the city of Peterborough and south Lincolnshire and see the exponential growth in piles of fly-tipped material on farmland and at the fringe of roads and waterways—the River Welland and the River Nene being two rivers in our area. It is very depressing, but it is a growing phenomenon, and it relates to the issue raised by my noble friend Lord Hailsham with regard to the availability or otherwise of municipal facilities for the disposal of often significant amounts of building material.

The other thing, of course, is that this is very much linked, increasingly, to organised crime. Criminal gangs operate illegal waste operations, undercutting legitimate licensed waste contractors. Tough sanctions, particularly those that target the proceeds of such activity and can confiscate vehicles and even imprison ringleaders, are something that we should seriously think about and that have been pursued in other jurisdictions.

To finish, I will very briefly—I know this is Report, but now we have the opportunity to talk about these issues—acquaint your Lordships’ House with the fly-tipping action plan that Keep Britain Tidy brought forward and published at the end of last year. Its recommendations for tackling waste crime are to shut down rogue operators by introducing tamper-proof licensing; to have taxi-style licence plates and a central searchable register; to strengthen enforcement, with tougher sentencing, which of course these amendments would facilitate; to support councils with intelligence-sharing platforms and stronger representation in the joint unit for waste crime; and, finally, to make it easier for the public, with a national awareness campaign and mandatory retailer take-back schemes for bulky items such as sofas and fridges. They all seem to be sensible proposals that would not necessarily cost the taxpayer a huge amount of money.

This is a very serious issue. These amendments are proportionate and sensible and would not be overly burdensome financially on the taxpayer. On that basis, I strongly support them and I hope the Minister will perhaps address some of the specific issues I have raised in his response.

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Again, we do not feel that this is a practical solution in and of itself. There is need for greater cross-party talk and conversations on these issues. This smaller area of fly-tipping is complex. We need to do a lot more on the circular economy and to make sure that local authorities provide proper waste disposal facilities. We need to strengthen the rural crime task forces. We need to temporarily direct landfill revenue to clearing up historic sites. More needs to be done to investigate this, but I do not feel that any of these amendments will, in and of themselves, make a huge difference to this problem.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

The argument could be summarised as letting perfect be the enemy of good. I am trying to suggest that seizing vehicles, making the polluter pay, if you can catch them, and putting points on their licence are steps towards solving the problem. They are not the silver bullet—there is not one. This will need a range of measures, including the issues around waste tips.

This would also give an incentive to the victims to actually collect evidence, sometimes at great personal risk. If you know that you can provide evidence and that there is a route for the police to prosecute these people and recover costs, it is an incentive to do something about it. At the moment, in rural areas, there is simply a belief that nothing is going to happen, so you might as well clear it up yourself or just leave it there. With these large waste dumps, you have no choice but to leave it there. I ask the noble Earl to consider that these are small steps that should be encouraged.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

To be clear, I do not disagree with the noble Lord—they are small steps and welcome. I am not against them as small steps; they will help. There is a bigger, broader problem out there that also needs tackling.

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[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

Does that mean that the noble Earl will support the amendment in the Lobby?

[Earl Russell (LD)]

No.

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I accept that this is a difficult issue but it is one which, having been brought to the attention of government agencies, is now being dealt with. I hope, with those comments, that noble Lords can accept where I have tried to move and understand the positions where the Government have given a reason why we cannot accept the amendments.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

Before the Minister sits down, may I ask him a question? I am sure that Defra issuing guidance on best practice for fly-tipping will strike fear, terror and a sense of repentance into fly-tippers. That slightly cheeky comment aside, if he will forgive me, I believe that the Environment Agency going on to land where there has been toxic fly-tipping will simply mean advising the landowner that if they do not deal with it, they will face a penalty themselves. I think that is going to be the case much more commonly than the agency coming on and clearing it up for them.