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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Environment Agency about (a) its responsibility to enforce the waste hierarchy and (b) cases in which that hierarchy has not been observed.

The Secretary of State has not held discussions with the Environment Agency regarding the enforcement of the waste hierarchy.

The Environment Agency always promotes observance of the waste hierarchy and takes a risk based, proportionate approach to enforcement. It rewards good performance and targets regulatory effort at higher-risk operators with the worst environmental performance.