Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Environment Agency is taking to prevent packaging recovery note fraud.

The Environment Agency (EA) works hard to tackle waste crime and free riders (market operators who circumvent Extended Producer Responsibility, breaking the law, and exploiting the system to avoid fees) in the waste sector, gathering intelligence to identify unregistered producers, helping to detect illegal activity and preventing fraud.

A dedicated EA team is focused on identifying and pursuing non-compliant companies and already the EA has brought over 840 suspected non-compliant companies or free riders into full compliance. The EA is intent on using its tougher enforcement powers in pEPR to reduce offending and it will continue to prioritise and investigate free riders to bring them into compliance in the waste sector, applying the 4P enforcement model (prepare, prevent, protect and pursue).