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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the progress made to date in combatting fly tipping.

The Government is committed to tackling fly-tipping. In recent years we have ensured that local authorities have the necessary powers to tackle fly-tipping. We have given local authorities the power to issue fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping and enhanced local authorities’ and the Environment Agency’s ability to search and seize the vehicles of suspected fly-tippers.

Earlier this year we also consulted on giving local authorities and the Environment Agency the power to issue fixed penalty notices to householders who fail in their duty of care and pass their waste to fly-tippers. A further announcement will follow later this year. We will also support local authorities in raising householders’ awareness of their duty of care and update the Waste Duty of Care Code of Practice to inform householders better about how to ensure their waste is disposed of properly.

As part of the Government’s Resource and Waste Strategy (due to be published before the end of the year), we are developing a strategic approach to waste crime. This will include further measures to tackle fly-tipping, including enhancing local-level partnership working and working with the court system to strengthen sentences to act as an effective deterrent.

Defra annually publishes fly-tipping statistics for England. The statistics for 2016/17 showed local authorities dealt with 1,002,000 fly-tipping incidents. The statistics for 2017/18 will be published on Thursday 15 November.