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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle waste crime.

Waste crime blights both local communities and the environment and we are committed to tackling it. We have given the Environment Agency an extra £60 million to tackle waste crime since 2014.

Our Resources and Waste Strategy (RWS) sets out our approach to preventing, detecting and deterring waste crime. The Environment Bill takes forward a number of these measures, including powers to introduce the mandatory electronic tracking of waste and enhanced enforcement powers for regulators and local authorities. The RWS is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/765914/resources-waste-strategy-dec-2018.pdf

In January 2020, the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) was launched - a taskforce dedicated to tackling serious and organised criminality in the waste sector, including large-scale illegal dumping and false labelling of waste. It brings together the EA, the National Crime Agency, the police, HMRC, Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in a UK-wide effort to share intelligence and resources. To tackle the growing trend in criminal waste networks, the new unit will conduct site inspections, make arrests and prosecutions and, upon conviction, push for heavy fines and custodial sentences.