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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle fly tipping.

In recent years we have bolstered local authorities’ powers to tackle fly-tipping, introducing fixed penalty notices and strengthening the power to seize the vehicles of offenders. We have also provided £450,000 to help several councils purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping, such as CCTV, and worked with the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to produce a guide on how councils and others can present robust prosecutions that support tougher sentences.

We have committed to raising fly-tipping penalties in our manifesto and will be conducting research to support policy development in this area. We are also preparing a number of legislative reforms to tackle waste crime more broadly which should also help tackle fly-tipping. This includes reform of the waste carrier, broker, and dealer regime and the introduction of digital waste tracking, both of which we consulted on earlier this year. We believe it is important that local residents are able to dispose of their rubbish in a responsible manner and encouraged to do so. We have consulted on preventing charges for disposing of DIY waste at local tips and provided communication materials to help householders better understand their responsibilities under the household waste duty of care.