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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the levels of Packaging Recovery Notes fraud in the waste export sector.

To tackle fraud in the Packaging Waste Recycling Note market we have introduced new requirements on exporters as part of the accreditation process.

The regulators are responsible for ensuring that exporters of UK packaging waste are compliant with the Regulations. In 2025, the Environment Agency (EA) assessed the compliance of 130 accredited operators leading to an increase in suspensions and cancellations.

The EA’s Investigations and Disruption team has expanded significantly in the last year. This additional resource has been deployed to strengthen reactive fraud investigations and proactive upstream disruption activity aimed at preventing serious and organised environmental crime.

The team works closely with HM Revenue and Customs, police forces, and regional organised crime units to focuses on high value fraud, money laundering, and individuals who facilitate or enable this form of criminality.