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 with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that effective penalties are imposed on people that illegally dump waste in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme, (b) Staffordshire and (c) England.

On 20 March the Government published its Waste Crime Action Plan, a major step up in its efforts to tackle waste crime. The Plan commits Defra to working closely with the Ministry of Justice to explore what more could be done to ensure that those who illegally dump waste are appropriately punished. Furthermore, the Crime and Policing Act, which received Royal Assent at the end of April, strengthens deterrence by enabling courts to endorse driving licences with penalty points for fly tipping offences involving vehicles, making it more difficult for repeat offenders to continue to dump waste illegally.