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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of trends in the level of local authorities' budgets on litter-related enforcement action.

The Department has not made any specific assessment of trends in local authority budgets on litter related enforcement action. Our new Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan sets out how we will support councils to take tougher action against those who litter, fly-tip and graffiti. This includes significantly raising the upper limit on fixed penalty notices, to £1,000 for fly-tipping and £500 for littering and leaving graffiti, and measures to help councils issue more penalties. Receipts from fixed penalties will be reinvested in clean up and enforcement.

We are also currently undertaking a research project on the effectiveness of the different enforcement options available to local authorities and the barriers they face in using these. The project is due to complete by the summer and the results will inform future policy development in this area.