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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of legislation to protect the countryside from fly-tipping.

The Government is committed to tackling fly-tipping in rural and urban areas. Local authorities and the Environment Agency have a full range of enforcement powers to tackle fly-tipping. We have recently strengthened their powers. We have given local authorities the power to issue fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping and enhanced the ability of local authorities’ and the Environment Agency to search, seize and destroy vehicles of suspected fly-tippers. We have also strengthened the Sentencing Council’s Guidelines. The maximum penalties for fly-tipping are imprisonment of up to five years or a potentially unlimited fine.