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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle fly-tipping in (a) rural and (b) suburban communities.

Fly-tipping is a serious crime which blights communities and places significant costs on both taxpayers and businesses.

Local authorities are responsible for tackling fly-tipping in their areas and we want to see an effective enforcement strategy at the centre of their efforts to tackle the problem. We are therefore taking steps to help councils make good use of their powers, including seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance. We are also reviewing their powers to seize and crush vehicles of fly-tippers, to identify how we could help councils make better use of this tool.

In our manifesto we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.

Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities and the National Farmers Union to share good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping, including on private land. The NFTPG has developed various practical tools, guidance and case studies highlighting best practice. These are available at: https://nftpg.com/.