Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2022 to Question 18815 on Joint Unit for Waste Crime and with reference to the report by the National Audit Office entitled Investigation into government’s actions to combat waste crime in England, published on 27 April 2022, HC 1149, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of permanently deploying staff from HMRC to the Joint Unit for Waste Crime.

There continues to be very close collaboration with the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC), including the current HMRC resource deployment. Whilst JUWC is focused on the overall challenge of combatting waste crime, tax compliance plays an important role, and HMRC will continue to evaluate the contribution it makes to the Environment Agency.