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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help tackle illegal waste sites in Lincolnshire.

The Waste Crime Action Plan is the toughest ever crackdown on illegal waste. We will tighten regulation to close the loopholes criminals exploit, enable tougher enforcement to disrupt and punish them, and direct action to clean up the damage they leave behind.

The Environment Agency (EA) takes a proactive, intelligence led approach to preventing illegal waste activity in Lincolnshire. Through the Lincolnshire Environmental Crime Partnership – which includes 24 partner organisations - the EA builds a comprehensive picture of waste crime risks across the county. This early intervention model enables the EA and its partners to identify emerging threats, disrupt criminal behaviour at an early stage, and prevent many potential illegal waste sites from becoming established.

Where the EA is made aware of an active illegal waste site, it acts swiftly to halt the activity and, where necessary, put measures in place to mitigate environmental harm. Officers then compile a detailed evidence base, which may include surveillance, document seizure, witness statements and digital or financial analysis, before determining the appropriate enforcement action.

Thanks to this proactive approach, only 27 illegal waste sites in Lincolnshire required enforcement action in 2024/25; without it, this figure would almost certainly have been significantly higher.