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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will list the enforcement actions undertaken by the Environment Agency against illegal waste exports in each year since 2010.

Environment Agency (EA) officers carry out pro-active, intelligence led inspections to stop suspected illegal waste shipments. This can be done at site or before the shipment leaves port. The EA prioritises shipments that have the greatest potential for environmental impact. Its intelligence led approach considers various factors such as destination country, waste type, operator history and risks associated with each shipment. In 2022-23 the EA prevented over 17,000 tonnes of waste being illegally exported, this was through stopping containers at port, but also through upstream interventions at waste sites and preventing waste from being loaded for export.

The EA provides advice and guidance to operators on how to export waste lawfully, and only considers enforcement action where this advice and guidance has not been heeded. Any decision on enforcement action is taken in accordance with the EA’s Enforcement and Sanctions Policy, which can be found here Environment Agency enforcement and sanctions policy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Prosecutions can be complex and generally involve engagement with international partners given the nature of illegal waste exports, but they are vital in appropriate cases. Other interventions such as Notices requiring action are quicker and can be more effective. Since 2018 the EA has regularly served over 100 notices per year on suspected illegal waste shipment.

Data on enforcement actions undertaken by the EA since 2017 are presented in the table below. Data on enforcement actions undertaken prior to 2017 are not held centrally and therefore cannot be provided in the current timeframe.

Breakdown of Environment Agency enforcement actions since 2017: