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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce waste crime in Yeovil constituency.

This Government is committed to tackling waste crime from the fly-tippers who blight our towns and villages to the serious and organised crime groups who are exploiting the waste sector. We are making policy and regulatory reforms to close loopholes exploited by criminals and have increased the Environment Agency’s (EA’s) budget for waste crime enforcement by over 50% this year to £15.6m.

The EA focuses on tackling large-scale waste crime, often linked to organised criminal activity. While fly-tipping is managed by local authorities, the EA works proactively with partners including the police, HMRC, DVSA, Local authorities and National Farmers Union through intelligence-led “days of action” at locations such as Cartgate roundabout near Yeovil. These operations target unregistered waste carriers and ensure compliance with licensing requirements and robust enforcement for non-compliance.

Representatives from the EA sit on the Avon and Somerset Rural Affairs Forum which is a partnership to address rural crime including waste crime. The Agency is also part of the South-West Regional Organised Crime Unit, which focuses on serious and organised waste crime. This unit assesses reports of illegal waste activity, undertaking triage and determining the response, based on a range of risk and public interest factors.