Fly-tipping
(asked on 14th November 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has taken steps to assist local authorities to tackle illegal dumps in (a) general and (b) Havering.
Answered by
Robbie Moore
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, and it is an offence to dump waste on land without appropriate authorisation. The Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan set out how we will support councils to take tougher action against those who fly-tip. We have raised the upper limit for fixed penalties for fly-tipping to £1,000 and taken steps to encourage councils to issue more of these penalties.
We are developing a toolkit with the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, to help councils and others tackle fly-tipping. This includes a guide on how to present robust cases to court and a new framework on setting up and running effective local partnerships.
We have also awarded nearly £1.2m to help more than 30 councils purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots. We have recently launched another grant opportunity that could see a further £1m handed out in grants next year to help even more councils tackle the issue.
The Environment Agency (EA) investigates fly tipping if the incidents are large-scale, serious, organised illegal dumping or if it immediately threatens human health or the environment. They work in partnership with other local partners such as the police, local authorities, the fire service and United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) as needed. This includes seeking advice from UKHSA about public health risks from illegal waste activities if necessary.
As part of its partnership work the EA has provided advice and guidance to the London Borough of Havering to help deal with a specific site in Havering and will continue to do so. The council is the lead authority on regulating this particular site and for monitoring air quality. Its work will take into account any advice on public health matters that it might receive from UKHSA.