Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the regulatory powers afforded to local councils to clear dumped rubbish and waste on shared land that has no defined legal ownership or occupation and is not public land.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Waste crime damages the environment and blights communities. The Government is committed to tackling this criminal activity and has significantly bolstered local authority enforcement powers in recent years as a result. Councils now have powers to issue fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping and stronger powers to seize and destroy vehicles involved in waste crime. Waste collection authorities can require the occupier or owner of land to remove any illegally deposited controlled waste or to take steps to eliminate the effects of the waste.
We will go further - including measures in the Environment Bill to combat waste crime through better access to evidence and improved powers of entry. Our new electronic waste tracking measures and our planned reform to waste carriers, brokers and dealers licensing will make it harder than ever for waste criminals to escape responsibility for their actions.
Defra has made no further assessment of the effectiveness of the powers afforded to local authorities in this respect.
Local authorities are responsible for keeping land in their control clear of waste. Crown authorities and others have similar responsibilities while landowners are responsible for the land they own. HM Land Registry publish ownership information on most registered land.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in relation to the regulatory powers afforded to local councils to enforce waste crimes and remove rubbish.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Waste crime damages the environment and blights communities. The Government is committed to tackling this criminal activity and has significantly bolstered local authority enforcement powers in recent years as a result. Councils now have powers to issue fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping and stronger powers to seize and destroy vehicles involved in waste crime. Waste collection authorities can require the occupier or owner of land to remove any illegally deposited controlled waste or to take steps to eliminate the effects of the waste.
We will go further - including measures in the Environment Bill to combat waste crime through better access to evidence and improved powers of entry. Our new electronic waste tracking measures and our planned reform to waste carriers, brokers and dealers licensing will make it harder than ever for waste criminals to escape responsibility for their actions.
Defra has made no further assessment of the effectiveness of the powers afforded to local authorities in this respect.
Local authorities are responsible for keeping land in their control clear of waste. Crown authorities and others have similar responsibilities while landowners are responsible for the land they own. HM Land Registry publish ownership information on most registered land.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of rogue operators within the waste collection sector.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The department does not produce estimates of the numbers of rogue operators in the waste collection sector. The Environment Agency recently published a survey of waste crime which provides useful information (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-waste-crime-survey-report-2021-findings-and-analysis)