Saqib Bhatti (Meriden) (Con) I beg to move, That this House has
considered the matter of tackling fly-tipping and illegal dumping.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I am
grateful for the time to discuss this important issue. “And did
those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green: And
was the holy Lamb of God On England’s pleasant pastures seen!” My
choir-singing days are long behind me, but that...Request free trial
(Meriden) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of tackling fly-tipping
and illegal dumping.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I am
grateful for the time to discuss this important issue.
“And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen!”
My choir-singing days are long behind me, but that famous hymn
and poem appropriately captures the idyllic nature of our
beautiful nation. However, I dread to imagine what William Blake
would think today if he could see the mattresses strewn along our
country lanes, the rubbish along our high streets or the old,
broken televisions and fridges dumped at the side of the road,
which is what we are here to discuss today. I asked for this
debate because I have been shocked by the level of littering and
fly-tipping, and I am sure every colleague will agree that it is
a blight on our environment and undermines our communities.
(Lewisham East) (Lab)
I thank the hon. Member for securing this debate and for a
powerful opening speech. I agree that fly-tipping is a blight on
our society. Does he agree that we need a real, structured and
well-funded Government campaign to prevent it?
I thank the hon. Member for that intervention, and I hope she
will be pleasantly surprised as I progress through my speech.
We can all agree that we ought to be able to enjoy wherever it is
we call home without the scourge of fly-tipping scarring our
landscape. In 2021 alone, there were more than 1.1 million
fly-tipping incidents in England, which is more than 129 a minute
and a 16% increase on the year before. This is a crime that feeds
antisocial behaviour and can lead to serious environmental and
public health damage, especially when something such as medical
waste is dumped.
(Battersea) (Lab)
I congratulate the hon. Member on his opening speech and thank
him for giving way. Not only does fly-tipping cause issues for
the environment, but there is the cost to local authorities,
which have to pay to get the rubbish removed. Does he agree that
we need more preventive and deterrent mechanisms? Local
authorities could have services to remove waste, and we could
have more CCTV so that we can catch fly-tipping offenders.
I worry that the hon. Member has seen a copy of my speech, but I
am sure that she, too, will be pleased to hear what I call
for.
Fly-tipping is indiscriminate. In my constituency, for example,
the northern, more urbanised parts experience fly-tipping as much
as the southern, more rural areas. This crime has serious
economic costs, with the total cost of fly-tipping to the
taxpayer estimated at £400 million. The number of large
fly-tipping incidents, or tipper lorry loads as they are called,
is 39,000 in total. The cost of clearance to local authorities
last year was £11.6 million—an increase from £10.9 million in
2019-20.
I also asked for this debate because I want to recognise the
social damage of fly-tipping. If levelling up is to mean
anything, we require investment in our communities, while also
instilling pride and empowering local organisations and our
parish councils to tackle fly-tipping. Nothing says “We don’t
care” more than when we let communities descend into becoming
havens for fly-tipping and the related antisocial behaviour.
Ultimately, that disenfranchises whole communities. Our
communities need to know that we stand for them. That is why I
stand here today calling for us to reinvigorate our war on
fly-tipping.
I want to take a moment to recognise the fantastic contributions
of organisations across my constituency, which continuously
remind me of the community spirit that protects our villages,
towns and homes. In particular, I thank my parish councils, which
have continuously raised this issue with me, including Barston,
Hampton-in-Arden, Castle Bromwich, Chadwick End, Tidbury Green,
Dickens Heath, Balsall Common, Berkswell, and Bickenhill and
Marston Green. I also thank Catherine-de-Barnes Residents’
Association, Clean & Green, the Knowle Society, the Balsall
Common Litter Pickers, the Hampton-in-Arden Wombles and Love
Solihull, which all supported and took part in my Keep Meriden
Tidy initiative last year. In addition, I thank the
litter-picking groups in Dorridge, the Marston Green Wombles and
the many individuals and organisations up and down the
constituency that take time out and volunteer to make their
villages and town centres beautiful and safe places to live, work
and play. These organisations and people need our support. In
fact, when I went around picking litter as part of my Keep
Meriden Tidy initiative last year, numerous bags were filled.
Shopping trolleys were extracted from streams, and there was a
real risk of finding unsavoury items such as knives, syringes or
worse.
That brings me to my first ask of the Minister: has she
considered the role of community organisations in dealing with
fly-tipping? Has she considered working with the Department for
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to examine whether further
powers could be given to parish councils to deal with fly-tipping
and litter? I am aware that she takes this issue incredibly
seriously, and I know that the Government are also serious about
tackling fly-tipping, recognising the social, economic and
environmental risk that it poses.
I welcome the establishment of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime,
which is designed to disrupt serious and organised crime around
fly-tipping. It works jointly with the National Crime Agency, Her
Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Environment Agency and the
police. Moreover, I recognise the great achievement that is the
Environment Act 2021, which introduced new powers to gain
evidence and enter sites.
I am also aware of the consultation on fly-tipping, which is
ongoing. Can the Minister reassure my constituents and others
affected by fly-tipping that the consultation will lead to
serious and meaningful change? Of course, I implore everyone to
take part in it and to share their ideas, which leads me to ask
the Minister and the Department what thought has been given to
providing more fly-tipping education for the public? I ask that
because that was a specific request from some of my constituents
when I visited Balsall Common.
Of course, we have fantastic campaigns, such as Keep Britain
Tidy, but the more, the merrier. That is why I will embark on
another Keep Meriden Tidy campaign, not least because we have the
Commonwealth games in my constituency. With over a billion eyes
watching our beautiful region, I intend to play my part in
keeping it that way.
One aspect of dealing with fly-tipping I have not yet touched on
is enforcement. The greatest source of frustration for many of my
constituents is the feeling that they can do everything they can,
including reporting the fly-tippers, but the level of enforcement
in no way matches their hard work, and prosecutions that would
deter fly-tipping are just too rare. In short, Minister, too many
fly-tippers are getting away with it.
Recently, I was pleased to see that there was a fly-tipping
intervention grant, but I must ask whether there will be more
rounds and more money, because I am keen for my constituents to
benefit from any future rounds. Can the Minister also confirm
that she is talking to local councils, or the relevant
Department, to ensure that local councils have the means to
tackle fly-tipping? In addition, can she confirm that she is
talking to the policing Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member
for North West Hampshire (), to beef up enforcement by the police? One of my
greatest fears is that my law-abiding constituents are put at
risk by dangerous fly-tippers, who are sometimes involved with
organised crime, and that the police are not able to do enough to
tackle the problem. For example, farmers in my constituency are
often at particular risk, because the very nature of rural areas
means that it takes longer to get police support. They are
particularly worried about confronting these criminals and about
the personal risk to them and their families if they do
intervene.
Of course I understand that the Government have many demands on
their resources, so one suggestion I have for the Treasury is
that if fines are issued to fly-tippers—frankly, there should be
larger fines—the money should be fed back into parish councils so
that they can have the resources to deter further dumping of
illegal waste.
(Wimbledon) (Con)
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate and for
his important contribution. However, does he recognise that one
of the problems is fly-tipping on private land, such as that
owned by Network Rail or the Highways Agency? We need the
Government to put pressure on those agencies to clear up more
quickly. The frustration for a lot of my constituents is that
when they want Network Rail to clear up fly-tipping, it takes me
three months to get it to do that. That is why we need some help
from the Government.
My hon. Friend makes a valid point, and I am sure the Minister
will have taken note of it.
The village of Barston is a particularly beautiful part of my
constituency; it was recently voted one of the most desirable
villages in the country. The parish council bought its own
automatic number plate recognition cameras, and it monitors who
enters Barston, with the data being shared with the police when
fly-tipping incidents occur. I am also aware of private
businesses working with other parish councils to help fund ANPR
cameras. Will the Minister consider incentivising private
business to work with parish councils to empower them to tackle
fly-tipping? When fly-tippers are identified, our hard-working
police need to have the resources to go after the criminals so
that they can meaningfully deter fly-tipping.
I am pleased that the Government are looking at electronically
tracking waste. The majority of fly-tipping is household waste,
but we could still go further and make it easier for residents to
dispose of rubbish. One idea that intrigues me is the use of
mobile recycling vehicles, which play a positive role in other
communities in increasing recycling rates and reducing
fly-tipping. The Minister’s support to engage in that would be
greatly welcome.
The next time we hear about walking upon England’s mountains
green and England’s pleasant pastures seen, let us make sure that
they are seen and that this country is seen for the beautiful
place it is, rather than as one covered by the eyesore of
fly-tipping and illegal dumping.
Several hon. Members rose—
(in the Chair)
Thank you, Mr Bhatti. I am conscious of the number of Members who
want to speak, so I will bring in a time limit of four minutes. I
ask that anybody who wishes to make interventions should make
them short and sharp so as not to take too much time away from
others who want to make a contribution.
2.41pm
Mrs (Birmingham, Erdington)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. As a
newly elected Member, this is my first time speaking in
Westminster Hall, and I am very pleased to be here. I
congratulate the hon. Member for Meriden () on securing this important
debate.
I have come here to do what lots of people accuse politicians of
doing every day: to talk rubbish. But on a serious note,
fly-tipping and illegal dumping are a huge problem in my
constituency: Slade Road in Stockland Green, Frederick Road in
Gravelly Hill and Farnborough Fields in Castle Vale are
particularly badly hit, to name just a few.
(Coventry North West)
(Lab)
My hon. Friend is making an important point about just how much
fly-tipping there is across her constituency. It is also a
massive issue in my constituency, whether in Radford,
Chapelfields or Allesley. I am sure she also receives dozens of
emails from constituents who are tired of rubbish being thrown on
the floor. Given that it has become increasingly difficult for
local authorities such as my council in Coventry to adequately
fund the removal of fly-tipping waste because of the budget cuts
over the past 12 years, does she agree that the Government need
to do more to support local councils to ensure that they have the
necessary resources to address this important issue?
Mrs Hamilton
I absolutely agree that that needs to happen.
Reports of fly-tipping are increasing across the country. In
Birmingham alone, the council received 38,142 reports of
fly-tipping between May 2021 and May 2022. Fly-tipping is against
the Brummie spirit. Our Labour council has been right to take a
zero-tolerance approach, introducing a £400 fixed penalty notice
for everyone caught dumping rubbish illegally. It has
successfully taken some of the most serious offenders to court,
but the increasing demand for enforcement action is coming after
almost a decade of austerity-driven cuts. Those have created the
most challenging period in the council’s history, as funding for
vital services has been cut by a staggering £775 million since
2010.
We have some amazing local organisations in our community, such
as the Erdington Litter Busters, who are doing their bit to
tackle illegal dumping, but we should not have to rely on
community groups to make our streets cleaner and greener. It is
clear that councils need more resources, and I hope the Minister
will be able to outline today specific support to help our local
authorities tackle fly-tipping, because it has become an
epidemic.
I want to turn to a specific issue blighting our constituency,
which indirectly leads to fly-tipping and illegal dumping. In
Erdington, the community has seen an alarming increase in houses
in multiple occupation and exempt accommodation, with the
second-highest level in the city. One example is Kings Road in
Stockland Green, where more than 27 out of 85 houses are in
multiple occupancy. With such a high concentration of properties,
which can often be full of strangers, some in large families or
with complex mental health issues, it is no surprise that we have
seen an increase in antisocial behaviour, drug dealing and
fly-tipping.
Birmingham City Council has once again done what it can, by
applying for a selective landlord licensing scheme to be
introduced in 25 of the 69 wards in the city. The largest
landlord licensing application in the country, Birmingham’s
scheme has not yet been approved by the Government. I hope the
Minister will indicate today that the Government will give it the
green light, as that will greatly help the council to tackle
rogue landlords and, in turn, reduce fly-tipping in our area.
I would like to finish by saying something positive. I welcomed
the Government’s announcement in March that they plan to
introduce minimum standards for properties in the private rented
sector, and new powers for local authorities to clamp down on
rogue landlords. As ever, the devil is in the detail, and I hope
the Minister can elaborate on those plans in today’s debate, as
all those measures will help to reduce fly-tipping.
As a former councillor in Birmingham, I know how much the local
authority is crying out for more powers and funding to help it
beat the curse of illegal rubbish being dumped in our
communities. It is such a huge problem in my constituency that
tackling it will be one of my key priorities in Parliament.
Today, we need the resources from the Government, not hot air and
empty promises.
2.47pm
(Keighley) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () for securing this important
debate. We can see from the number of Members in attendance how
significant this issue is across our constituencies. This debate
is important for me because certain areas in my constituency are
plagued by fly-tippers. As many have said, fly-tipping and
illegal dumping can ruin the experience of residents and
visitors.
The Worth valley in my constituency, one of the most beautiful
parts of the country, is the place that inspired the Brontë
sisters and is home to some of Yorkshire’s finest tourist
attractions. Too often, when one drives through this rural
landscape, bin bags, discarded objects and even hazardous
material can be seen dumped and discarded at the side of the
road.
Only in April this year, hundreds of dumped tyres were found on
Nab Water Lane in Oxenhope in the middle of the Worth valley. In
November last year, a large number of household waste items, such
as mattresses, cots and bags of rubbish, were dumped in East
Morton cemetery, near Riddlesden, where Captain Sir Tom Moore is
buried. It is an absolute disgrace that individuals feel they can
get away with that. In April 2021, 225 tyres were dumped on the
top of Ilkley Moor. That illustrates that we are not talking
about little bits of rubbish being dumped here and there. This is
organised crime, which we must get on top of.
This is not just happening in the rural parts of my constituency.
In the centre of Keighley, some of the back streets, particularly
the back lane to Cavendish Street, are hard hit, with residents
finding numerous bits of dumped rubbish. That causes huge amounts
of havoc and distress for many people living and working in the
area.
The figures stand out. Nationally, 1.13 million incidents of
fly-tipping have been recognised over the past year. Within the
Bradford district alone, last year there were 2,000 fly-tipping
incidents, with 50 fly-tipping fixed penalty notices given out
and five vehicles that had been involved in environmental crime
seized. In Keighley itself, 2,500 fly-tipping incidents have been
reported over the past two and a half years. Keighley Central
ward had the highest number, with 771 recorded; it was closely
followed by the Worth valley—one of the most rural parts of the
constituency—which saw 522.
We have to get to grips with this problem and get on top of it.
Funding is absolutely vital, but we also need a name-and-shame
strategy. To hold these individuals to account, let us have the
names of anyone who gets a fixed penalty notice branded across
the constituency. We have had Travellers visit Ilkley and leave
behind huge amounts of vegetation—green waste. They have clearly
gone around the town, approached residents and asked how much
they can pay to get rid of their green waste, and then they have
left it on private and council property so that the taxpayer has
to pay to get rid of it. This cannot continue.
We also need to be smarter about installing more CCTV cameras and
using technology to investigate and explore the rubbish that has
been dumped so that we can work back and hold those criminals to
account, in order to get on top of this horrendous issue that
blights us all.
2.51pm
(Barnsley East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark, and
a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Keighley (). I congratulate the hon.
Member for Meriden () on securing this important
debate. It is nice to see my hon. Friend the Member for
Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs Hamilton) in her place.
In the past year, more than 5,500 reports of fly-tipping were
submitted by people across Barnsley—almost double the number from
the year before. Fly-tipping does not just ruin local
communities; it can be hazardous and toxic and can feed into
serious organised crime. Thanks to the efforts of Barnsley
Council, its #EverybodyThink campaign and local residents,
fly-tipping has decreased in recent months. However, if we are to
tackle this issue at its root, more must be done at a national
level to support local authorities.
Barnsley’s council budget has been devastated by some of the
largest cuts in the country; it has been subject to cuts of 40%
since 2010. Although the council is already stretched, the
removal of fly-tipped waste is costing it nearly £200,000 a year.
It might sound good for the Government to speak of transferring
power to councils to deal with problems such as fly-tipping, but
that is futile if, in reality, councils are left without the
resources to provide proper solutions. I ask the Minister what
the Government are doing to ensure local authorities get all the
support they need.
For private landowners who fall victim to fly-tipping, funding
the proper disposal of waste can be really expensive; if it was
not, the waste would likely not have been dumped in the first
place. This can lead landowners to resort to poor methods of
disposal—such as setting fire to or burying rubbish—which can
cause damage to local habitats and local people’s health.
To prevent that, the Government might look at encouraging other
areas to replicate the successful pilot carried out by the
Hertfordshire police and crime commissioner. His annual fund of
£20,000 supports private landowners with paying for the removal
of fly-tipping, using funds from the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
That allows waste to be processed properly for the benefit of the
whole community. I also echo the calls that have been made in the
debate for tougher enforcement.
The problem with fly-tipping is that it can easily snowball. The
more people see it, the easier it is to believe that it is
acceptable behaviour and the less incentive there is to maintain
cleanliness. To stop this problem from spiralling, we need to
make proper disposal as easy as possible and offending as
difficult as possible. That could start with ensuring that houses
in multiple occupancy have enough wheelie bin space for all who
live there. It could also mean placing obligations on those who
sell large household items to offer or direct to services that
dispose of old fridges, mattresses and the like when customers
buy new ones.
Education is crucial. People should be fully informed about how
everything in their house should be thrown away, as well as how
to check for a proper waste carrier licence; that would prevent
unsuspecting households from funding illegitimate services run by
criminals. We are all familiar with what a driver’s licence or a
registered taxi looks like, so there is no reason why we cannot
be taught to recognise a waste carrier licence. In that vein,
steps should be taken to strengthen the process for obtaining a
waste carrier licence, so that background checks are carried out
in more cases and licences are less easily replicated. If we make
offending hard, dealing with waste through simple, proper
disposal will not feel like such a burden for businesses or
homes.
Fly-tipping is a blight on communities such as Barnsley but,
fortunately, solving it is in everyone’s best interests. There
are lots of local groups across Barnsley who work hard, mainly
with volunteers, to keep Barnsley tidy and clean. I take this
opportunity to pay tribute to them all, because we all lose when
the hard-earned money that we pay in taxes goes towards removing
dumped rubbish. We all lose when habitats are lost and our
environment becomes dirty, and we all lose when criminals are
allowed to run riot in our towns. With the right support from
Government and the right changes across the country, there is no
reason why we cannot put an end to this terrible practice; we
need to do so.
2.55pm
(Loughborough) (Con)
It is a delight to speak in the debate, Sir Mark, and I thank my
hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () for securing it. I had quite
a long speech, but I will cut it down to just a few pertinent
points. I ought to declare that I am still a borough councillor
with Charnwood Borough Council. I will talk about some of the
good things and some of the bad things happening in our area with
fly-tipping.
First, I want to focus on farmers. Farmers in my area are
blighted by fly-tipping, particularly on the margins of the
constituency and the county—I am on the edge of the county. There
is frequent fly-tipping on Charley Road in Shepshed, for example,
which causes farmers great distress and rather a lot of
expenditure. Betty Hensers Lane in Mountsorrel is also frequently
blighted. Incidents like those that my hon. Friend described
involving lorry loads—he referred to them as tipper trucks—happen
often throughout Charnwood, both in my constituency and in the
constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (). To deter fly-tippers,
farmers are resorting to drastic measures such as blockading
gates and field entrances with machinery and other items, and
installing lights and security cameras—all at their own expense.
That is something I would like to look at with the Minister,
please.
There is good news, however. Charnwood Borough Council has been
running a campaign called “Don’t muck around”, and I was the lead
member for four years. We did all sorts of things. We had posters
where dogs were, dare I say it—am I going to be the first Member
to say “pooing” in Hansard?—pooing, to show that people should
pick it up and take it away themselves. We had 38 flags in Sileby
football pitch identifying pieces of dog poo across a pitch that
kids were playing on every weekend; it was terrible.
The council does wonderful things to do with littering,
fly-tipping and dog mess, and I absolutely take my hat off to the
street management team, who work very hard. The council holds a
rubbish amnesty day at the end of every student year. As the
students leave, a rubbish truck comes round and takes the rubbish
away, which is great. That does not happen in all cases, but it
does in the majority. At the beginning of the year, during
freshers’ week, the council gives out advice on what to do with
rubbish, because people come from different parts of the country,
where rubbish is dealt with differently.
There are those kinds of concerns, but I am most concerned about
the impact on farmers. Aliens do not come down and fly-tip
rubbish on our country. I therefore ask that everybody deals with
their own rubbish as much as possible. If everybody did that, we
would not have fly-tipping, littering or dog mess across the
country.
A point was made earlier about ensuring that carriers do, in
fact, have waste licences and are not dumping waste elsewhere. I
suggest that littering from moving vehicles, including from the
backs of open trucks, should be heavily fined to deter people
from leaving detritus in our towns and on our highways.
2.59pm
(Hyndburn) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark.
I want to tell a story. It is the story of a constituent who
wrote to me recently, and it is about a lovely spring morning of
the sort we all dream about. The weather was beautiful, as it
always is in Lancashire, and there was not a single cloud in the
sky. The weather was so wonderful that my constituent and his
wife decided to take their daughter and their dog for a walk in
our wonderful countryside. They found a route they liked and
headed out into nature. After a time, they saw a road in the
distance. They ambled casually towards a hedge next to it and
climbed a stile out of the field. They looked around them at this
unspoiled bit of rural Lancashire, and they saw an old sofa,
three broken kitchen units, piles of old, empty paint tins, and
many bags of building waste and other rubbish, some with flies
and rotting smells coming from them. They were appalled. The
family’s outing had been spoiled by a blight that impacts us
all.
That story is a composite of many emails and letters I have
received about this subject. Not a day goes by without someone
dumping something in a country lane or back alley, and my office
estimates that almost 20% of our casework relates to fly-tipping
of one kind or another. That is shocking, and it highlights the
sheer scale of the problem we face as a society. It is not just
rural areas: our towns, cities and villages are also blighted by
this horrendous crime, but what is the solution?
There is no doubt that the steps the Government are taking to
allow materials to be recycled at tips more easily will certainly
help, but that will not stop the problem altogether. At its heart
is laziness, and a lack of care for others and for the
communities in which fly-tippers live. The only solution is
enforcement, deterrence and prosecutions, and I am sorry to say
that councils simply to do enough. I have constantly called on
Rossendale Borough Council and Hyndburn Borough Council to take
more action on fining the people who blight our communities, but
unfortunately they have not done that. After our great local
election, we now have a cabinet member in control who is on our
side—Steven Smithson—so I hope more action will be taken.
Councils need to increase the use of covert recordings and invest
in drones, static hidden cameras and other technologies to record
fly-tippers and catch them in the act. They also need to increase
their investigations into fly-tipped material and pursue every
single fly-tipper relentlessly. There should be a
disproportionate response to fly-tipping, and fines should
reflect that. At present, we are simply not issuing enough and we
are not putting other punishments in place. I also believe that
the vehicles of all fly-tippers should be seized as proceeds of
crime. We need a zero-tolerance approach. I agree that we need to
look at licences, and there needs to be more enforcement action
when rubbish is dumped on private land.
That is my contribution to the debate. We need more action and we
need more from the Government, such as an education campaign. We
must work together to improve our local communities.
3.02pm
(Moray) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on securing this debate.
Although these issues are devolved, it is right that in our UK
Parliament, Members representing all constituencies have the
opportunity to raise concerns about their local areas.
Fly-tipping is a major issue in Moray, as it is in other parts of
the country. In 2016-17, there were 139 reported incidents of
fly-tipping in Moray, but the most recent figures show that in
2020-21 the number had risen to 402. For a very remote and rural
area, that is a high number of incidents. Local people rightly
complain about them, and, as we have heard, people have to pay
for them.
At the same time, according to freedom of information figures
from Moray Council, in 2016-17 seven people received fixed
penalty notices. Despite the fact that the number of incidents
has more than doubled in the period to 2021-22, only 16 fixed
penalty notices were issued in the most recent year. It is a
serious concern that the people responsible for these illegal
dumping and fly-tipping activities are not being held accountable
for their actions.
My hon. Friend spoke about mattresses, and others have talked
about more toxic items that are illegally discarded. That is
important, because although any material discarded in this way is
unsightly, in some cases it is also extremely dangerous. Some
time ago, in Tugnet near Spey bay in Moray, people dumped a large
amount of asbestos, which is clearly dangerous for anyone who
goes near it and hazardous to the officials from the council who
had to go along to clear it.
I am pleased that we had excellent local government results at
the start of this month in Moray, where the Conservatives are now
in charge—every one of our candidates was elected, while the SNP
went backwards. In response to another FOI request, Moray Council
could not tell us how much is spent on clearing up this waste, so
I hope the new administration in Moray will put out more
knowledge about the cost to the council. The public deserve to
know how much their local authority is spending on clearing up
waste in their area.
The last thing I want to speak about today is a consultation that
has just closed in Scotland on a new fly-tipping Bill, which is
being brought forward by my Scottish Conservative colleague
. The legislation in
Scotland has not changed since 1990, and we have seen no action
from the SNP on this issue over their 15 years in power. That is
why the Scottish Conservatives are leading this charge. The
consultation closed last night with 190 responses, which were
overwhelmingly positive about new legislation coming forward. The
Bill would ensure better data collection and reporting mechanisms
for fly-tipping in communities, and it would ensure that the land
or property owner is not responsible for clearing it up. We have
heard time and time again today about the cost to innocent
people, and therefore we as Scottish Conservatives want far more
onus to be placed on finding the perpetrators and making sure
they pay for clearing up.
My plea to the Minister is that she joins the growing list of
people supporting this legislation in Scotland. Scottish Land
& Estates has said:
“We were pleased to help Mr Fraser develop his Member’s Bill and
strongly support the Bill’s intentions to rid Scotland of
fly-tipping once and for all”,
and Robin Traquair, vice-president of National Farmers Union
Scotland, has said:
“Fly-tipping is such a major issue across Scotland that action
needs to be taken to change the law when it comes to dealing with
those responsible. Such positive action to tackle fly-tipping,
through this Private Member’s Bill, is something NFU Scotland
would fully support.”
I hope that today, we also get the support of a UK Government
Minister, because this is legislation that we need in
Scotland.
3.06pm
(Totnes) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark, and
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on raising this issue. From
the speeches we have heard, it is clear that whether we are in an
urban or a rural setting, we are all facing the same problem: the
pernicious crime that is fly-tipping. It happens in my
constituency, and it has happened to a greater degree over the
pandemic. The statistics are stark; figures from across the
country show that over the past two years, fly-tipping has only
got worse. In the east midlands, it has got 20% worse; in the
east, it has got 29% worse; in London, it is 6.9% worse; in the
north-east, it is 26.7% worse; in the north-west, it is 21.8%
worse; in the south-east, it is 34% worse; in the south-west, it
is 9.2% worse; and in the west midlands, it is 27.9% worse. The
only area of the country that has seen an improvement is
Yorkshire and the Humber, with a reduction of 1.6%. Surely, there
is a lesson we can learn from that.
There has also been a 24% reduction in the number of fixed
penalty notices issued for fly-tipping, so we need to seriously
address the questions of who is disposing of waste and where they
are disposing of it. The people who use such services have some
responsibility for ensuring they are disposing of their waste
through a safe and responsible organisation; they, too, have a
responsibility to make sure that their white goods, mattresses
and furniture go where they should. It was interesting to hear
Opposition Members talk about the responsibility of local
authorities. Of course, some responsibility rests with local
authorities to take action, but this also relies on individual
businesses behaving responsibly by making sure they put their
waste into tips, and on responsible behaviour from people who are
getting rid of waste.
One of the biggest problems I have found in my constituency is
how we document this crime, because it is incredibly difficult
and expensive to so. We can talk about putting up CCTV cameras
everywhere, but the reality bites: people in rural areas do not
want CCTV cameras all over the place. In order to stamp
fly-tipping out, we will have to find a way to bring together
councils, individuals and businesses, with a register and
hard-level fines to punish people who commit this crime. We will
not always be able to rely on documenting it with big-state
CCTV.
The fines are the biggest problem. According to the notes I have
and the “Panorama”documentary “Rubbish Dump Britain”—my hon.
Friend the Member for Peterborough () and I referred to it in a
debate that we held last year—it costs £1,500 to £2,000 for a
council to investigate and prosecute fly-tipping, but the average
fine is £170. Clearly, when there is such an imbalance, we will
not discourage people from fly-tipping. We have the added problem
of what happens if we employ someone to take our waste away and
they subcontract the service to someone else, so there has to be
a register or a measure in place.
My hon. Friend the Member for Meriden started and finished his
speech with the words of “Jerusalem”. We might also add some
Shakespeare, and say that
“this sceptred isle…set in the silver sea”
is worth protecting. It is worth ensuring that we can bring to
justice those who commit the crime of fly-tipping. We must ensure
they are brought before the law and dissuaded by punitive fines.
If we can do that, we will see an end to it.
3.10pm
(Peterborough) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on securing this important
debate.
Fly-tipping is a consistent problem in Peterborough. Two years
ago I raised the local issues in my constituency at length in an
Adjournment debate. I am sick to death of seeing hotspots in my
constituency. The junction between Norwood Lane and Newborough
Road is a particular problem. As many hon. Members have said, the
question is not whether this is an urban or rural issue—it
affects both settings. Urban communities such as Bretton and
Ravensthorpe in my constituency are plagued by it, as are rural
villages such as Thorney and Newborough.
I will not take up Members’ time by talking at length, not least
because the issues from two years ago have not changed. We need
more powers to combat fly-tipping. Along with others, I called
for higher fines beyond the current fixed penalty notice limits,
argued for a zero-tolerance approach, made the case for new
Government guidance, and suggested better tools and resources for
local authorities. The Under-Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton
Deane (), expressed lots of sympathy,
noted that the legal issues involved were complicated, cited some
positive-sounding statistics, and urged patience. To her credit,
since then enforcement action has risen, but so have incidents of
fly-tipping. We need the online fly-tipping toolkit. Much of the
guidance still offers less than zero tolerance.
Since taking over this brief, my the Under-Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member
for Bury St Edmunds () has announced that people will no longer have to
pay to dispose of DIY waste, which will make a real difference.
She has also advanced the move towards digital waste tracking,
with powers and penalties to match. I gather that the first
element of the toolkit is near to launch, which is music to my
ears. She has also questioned whether fixed penalty notice fines
are high enough to act as a deterrent. I welcome what she has
done, but I also pass on to her the desire of my constituents in
Peterborough for the Government to keep going, and to go
further.
One easy step would be to revise the two guidance documents that
I cited two years ago: “Fly-tipping: council responsibilities”
and “Household waste duty of care: fixed penalty notice
guidance”. They have not changed. The language and direction
could be far more robust, and they are far from the only
instances. Moreover, I understand that that upping the penalty
limits would require legislation, so I hope that the Minister
will look at whether that can be done.
As has been said, fly-tipping is often the result of organised
crime. That is absolutely right. It is often the case in rural
settings and we need to crack down on it. Enough is enough. Our
communities should no longer be used as dumping grounds. We need
zero tolerance, stricter fines, CCTV enforcement and stronger
guidance from the Government. Fly-tipping blights too many of our
communities. It is time for us to act and to start driving the
number of incidents down.
3.14pm
Mr (South West Hertfordshire)
(Con)
It is a real honour to speak in this important debate, Sir Mark.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on securing it. I should
declare an interest as a former councillor for many years.
I think we are on a journey. When I first got elected as a lowly
parish councillor in 2004, recycling was nowhere near as good as
it is today, so I congratulate constituents up and down the
country for doing the right thing. My own council, the Three
Rivers District Council, is the third best performing council in
the country for recycling, so I wish to put on the record my
thanks to my constituents for doing the right thing.
As others have said, illegal fly-tipping can cause significant
damage, especially to local wildlife but also to the perception
of communities. My hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon () referred to Network Rail.
The speed at which fly-tipped waste is collected can have a
detrimental effect. If we do not encourage all actors to quickly
resolve the issue, there can be a spiral of disrepair.
I represent South West Hertfordshire, a beautiful constituency
that is about 80% green belt. Others have spoken about the cost
to private landlords when fly-tipping takes place on their land.
This Government and previous Administrations have done a lot of
work on this issue, such as confiscating vehicles found guilty of
crime, but more can be done. Part of that, as others have said,
is education. I had a constituent who was a victim of beer
barrels being fly-tipped. The local council claimed that it was
investigating, but it ended up that the constituent spoke to the
offender, during a time when they were undergoing radiotherapy.
That should not have had to happen. There is always a human
victim at the end of this crime. The land can be blighted, but it
is the landowner or occupier who has to deal with the issue.
The private sector is also affected. Waste collectors that do the
job properly get targeted or associated with the poor performers.
I know that they are proud of their industry. I am really keen
for the cost base to remain low; we need to make sure that where
businesses are doing the right thing, we congratulate them. This
place is one of many where we are able to do so.
I welcome the Government’s April announcement on new council
grants and a specific focus on new technology, the use of CCTV
and ANPR cameras, and education. The hon. Member for Barnsley
East () mentioned the police and
crime commissioner in Hertfordshire. Buckinghamshire, just across
the way from me, has extended its funding to local councils. I
hope that Hertfordshire councils—district, borough and the county
council—can look into doing a bit more.
The Government have adopted new technology with new applications
coming out. I look forward to investigating that more. I am a
firm believer that the world evolves and it is right that the
Government lead those conversations. The consultation published
last month on the change in household waste recycling centres is
really important. The past two years have seen a lot of
homeowners redevelop their own homes. Having a cheap and easy way
of making best use of waste facilities is good.
I am conscious of time, so I will wrap up. I congratulate the
Minister on the excellent work that she continues to do in this
area.
3.18pm
Sir (South Staffordshire)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on securing this debate.
We have heard already about the impact of fly-tipping right
across the country. We have heard how it blights communities and
disrupts people’s lives. In South Staffordshire, sadly, we often
have to deal with industrial-scale fly-tipping—not just a
mattress, sofa or small items of building products, but large
truckloads abandoned in woods and on the roadside. That has an
enormously high cost, be that for the landowner or the local
authority. Even more importantly, it blights the local community
in such a dreadful way.
We know that the cost of disposal is high. For an individual or
an authority that has to dispose of fly-tipped goods, the average
cost is £800. The Minister will probably talk about the large
fines that can be levied on fly-tippers—she will probably mention
that a fine of up to £50,000 can be levied. If she does, I hope
she also mentions how many individuals have been charged that top
fine of £50,000. I know that in the past it has been
exceptionally rare, so I hope she will cover that.
A few years ago, the Government made an important move by giving
local authorities the ability to levy on-the-spot fines. That had
an initial impact, but it does not go far enough. The largest
fine they can levy is £500. As has already been touched on by my
hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (), the cost of actually
bringing a prosecution averages between £1,500 and £2,000. The
investment that needs to be made by local authorities to catch
these criminals can often be substantial.
I would like to make a suggestion to my hon. Friend the Minister.
As she will be aware, the Queen’s Speech included the
Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill. What better way to level up
and improve communities than by having that Bill address
fly-tipping? I suggest to the Minister—she could go back to the
Department and claim that this is all her own work—that the limit
for on-the-spot fines levied by local authorities should be
increased dramatically to £5,000. People who dump rubbish would
then feel the pain for causing disturbance, nuisance and
vandalism to our countryside.
Will the Minister also consider amending legislation so as to
enable local authorities to make better use of closed-circuit
television in a concealed environment? So often, fly-tipping
occurs regularly in spots across the countryside because they are
conveniently located close to main arterial roads. Changing the
legislation to enable local authorities to make better use of
concealed CCTV would have an enormous impact by increasing the
number of fly-tippers they could catch. It would allow local
authorities to keep those fines, creating the incentive to go
after the fly-tippers.
3.22pm
(Sevenoaks) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on securing this debate on
an issue that is so important to his constituents and to all of
us here.
Fly-tipping is a perennial problem in Sevenoaks and Swanley. In
the last year alone, we have had 1,600 incidents —one of the
highest numbers I have heard today. Some of them have been
dangerous. Similar to the example given by my hon. Friend the
Member for Moray (), we have had asbestos dumped
in Ash, which led to a road being blocked off for two weeks. We
have had dangerous waste dumped in Shoreham Lane, leading to farm
animals eating it and dying. We have had horse corpses dumped on
land. On some occasions, they were dying horses, which was very
distressing for everybody involved. We have had rubbish dumped in
Horton Kirby and Fawkham, which obviously caused huge issues for
people just trying to go about their daily business. This is an
issue that absolutely needs resolving.
The good news is that, in Sevenoaks and Swanley, Sevenoaks
District Council has done a huge amount of very good work
focusing on enforcement. I am pleased to say that we are, I
think, the only district council in Kent that has a dedicated
fly-tipping enforcement agency, which has worked very hard to
secure prosecutions this year. We have had eight criminal
prosecutions, I think, and about 50 fixed penalty notices and
lots more statutory warnings.
Just last Friday, a case was prosecuted against someone who had
fly-tipped five times. He received a 12-month community order and
was ordered to pay £3,000 in compensation to Kent County Council
and £250 to Sevenoaks District Council. These fines are not
enough to deter people, especially repeat offenders such as the
one I just mentioned. My right hon. Friend the Member for South
Staffordshire (Sir ) and my hon. Friend the
Member for Totnes () were absolutely right
that we need to focus on not only the maximum level but how much
local authorities are able to get back from people who carry out
these irritating crimes that are causing such a blight on our
communities.
We also need to focus on the role of the Environment Agency.
According to the National Audit Office, the number of Environment
Agency prosecutions for waste crime has dropped from nearly 800 a
year in 2007-08 to about 50 a year in 2017-18. The Minister will
tell us whether that trend is reflected in the current figures—I
do not have those for this year—but it seems worrying and we
should act quickly to address it.
I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes about
compensation for councils so that they recoup their fees when
they prosecute such cases. It is just not economical for them to
do so, because they recoup only 40% of their fees on average.
Sevenoaks District Council spent £23,000 on this matter last
year. We need to do more to support councils that are trying to
do the right thing by addressing this blight on our
communities.
I will leave my remarks there. I am grateful to the Minister for
all her work—I know that she is focused on this matter—but the
strength of feeling in the debate shows that more needs to be
done.
3.25pm
(Truro and Falmouth)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () on securing the debate, and
I welcome the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs
Hamilton) to Westminster Hall for the first time.
I speak as a former Cornwall councillor and as the Member
representing Truro and Falmouth in Cornwall, where fly-tipping is
a major concern, as it is in the other constituencies we have
heard about in the debate. I regularly hold beach cleans and
litter picks around the coastline and throughout the
countryside—we are deeply saddened to see our beauty spots
stained by the irresponsible dumping of household goods—and I
thank my parish and town councils and the volunteers who take
part every day. In Cornwall, it feels like it is in our DNA to
pick up litter where we see it.
Fly-tipping is a significant blight on the environment. It is a
source of pollution and a potential danger to public health, and
it costs council tax payers vast sums every year. Every year,
Cornwall Council spends an estimated £250,000 on clearing up
waste that has been tipped around the duchy. It is no wonder that
the people of Truro and Falmouth have had enough.
Unlike some who have spoken, I will not name our hotspots, and I
hope that hon. Members will understand why. My hon. Friend the
Member for Totnes () spoke about the national
trend, but in Cornwall we have seen a decrease in our instances
of fly-tipping since the pandemic. In 2018, we had just over
4,500 instances throughout the whole of Cornwall, while last
year, we had just over 3,000. I am pleased to say that that is
because we now have a Conservative council that is actually
tackling the issue, and I thank everybody involved at the
council—the officers and the councillors—for their incredible
hard work.
The council’s strong joint-working relationship with the waste
contractor means that it now has many individuals on the ground
to help to gather evidence. The council has also trained town and
parish councils on how to report instances of fly-tipping,
ensuring that they provide sufficient information for cases to be
investigated and that partner organisations are credible
witnesses when they identify fly-tipping.
Council officers also undertake surveillance operations in known
fly-tip hotspots, using camera equipment. The council
successfully prosecuted a persistent fly-tipper in February 2022
following a surveillance operation—the prosecution resulted in
fines and costs of £7,348—and further operations are being
organised. Although that is positive progress, nobody should
fly-tip at all, and that is why we still have much work to
do.
I will not repeat the calls for the Government to act, because I
know that we all feel the same way, but I support the calls from
the National Farmers Union for effective punishments to deter
criminals from dumping waste illegally. That could be achieved by
developing further guidance so that effective punishments can be
delivered when prosecuting, which would support our farmers and
landowners. That would include raising awareness of offences that
affect rural and coastal communities in particular, and working
with those who bring cases to court to ensure that they make full
use of the range of sentencing powers available to them.
In addition, I support the NFU’s calls for the development of a
single reporting mechanism so that farmers and land managers have
to report a fly-tipping incident only once. Currently, victims
often need to report incidents to multiple authorities, which is
frustrating and time-consuming for busy farmers. Such a mechanism
would ensure that the correct authority is informed and that
feedback is available following each report. I stress that I also
support the call for increased fines, but I will let the Minister
address that because I know that she has already heard the call
from colleagues today.
3.29pm
(Newport West) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. It
is good to see so many colleagues in the Chamber, especially
Government Members who are joining us in our plea for the
Government to go further and faster in tackling the crime of
fly-tipping and illegal dumping.
This is the first time I have spoken in the House since the
election of a Labour Government in Australia, and I know the
Minister will join me in wishing the new Prime Minister well on
such a fantastic result. He is a friend to many in this place,
including Adam Jogee in my team. Focusing on tackling the climate
emergency worked down under, and I look forward to seeing the
same thing happen here—and, of course, I am hoping for the same
result here in the next election.
I thank the hon. Member for Meriden () for calling this debate and
providing the House with the opportunity to address our
collective responsibility for preserving our country, protecting
our environment and leaving our planet for the next generation.
His predecessor, Dame , was of course Secretary
of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the coalition
Government, so his constituency has a keen interest in these
matters. It has been clearly highlighted that many other
constituencies across the UK do too, and the public are keen to
do whatever they can to help. We have already heard about the
Wombles and the litter-pickers across the UK. In Newport West,
Malpas, Duffryn, Rogerstone and Graig all have litter-pickers out
in regular occurrence. Our “road to nowhere”, which was a
fly-tipping nightmare, has now been transformed into a road to
nature, which is brilliant.
Hon. Members have rightly raised the scourge of waste in their
communities, not just today but in many previous debates. Until
Ministers step up and give councils the resources they need to
keep our communities clean and safe, Members will continue to
raise this issue and seek help, change and assistance. Thanks to
a lost decade of Tory austerity, plastic waste is piling up on
high streets and street corners, and in our green open spaces.
Moreover, it is being exported to some of the world’s poorest
countries, where what was supposed to be recycled material ends
up in landfill, polluting our oceans. It is then shipped back to
Britain for us to deal with. This is a very real problem, and it
requires speedy, comprehensive and properly funded solutions.
The hon. Member for Sevenoaks () highlighted the decrease in
prosecutions by the Environment Agency. There is a reason for
that: these agencies have been underfunded and understaffed for
many years, and they have struggled to tackle waste crime and
monitor waste exports because of the cuts to their budgets and
staff numbers. We all know the impact that austerity has had on
local government.
Hon. Members from across the House, including those who represent
areas such as Meriden, have stories of how their local councils
are struggling to deal with waste effectively, while being forced
to cut waste collections. Labour believes that we need a more
circular economy in the United Kingdom. The raw materials used to
create our products should increasingly come from recycling our
waste. Indeed, a Labour Government would take on the global waste
crisis by investing in a new plastics recycling and
remanufacturing industry, creating thousands of jobs, ending
exports of plastic waste and reducing our contribution to ocean
pollution.
I am sure the Minister knows that in England, the total volume of
aggregate waste increased by 12% between 2010 and 2018. I speak
to the House from a Welsh perspective: recycling must outpace the
growth in consumption. That is a very simple sum that must add
up.
Despite the new powers on waste targets in the Environment Act
2021, I am afraid that the Government have delayed the roll-out
of important areas of extended producer responsibility, including
the scheme administrators and fee modulation. The current
inadequacies of waste collection and recycling systems mean that
used compostable packaging tends to end up in either landfill or
incineration, or it messes up recycling plants because some of
the materials used can be as resistant to degrading in the sea as
conventional plastics.
I do not want to show the Minister up, but I have to talk about
the Welsh Labour Government, because Wales has been a standout
performer in the UK when it comes to recycling rates and tackling
waste pollution. The Welsh Labour Government have invested £1
billion since devolution in household recycling, and that has
helped Wales’s recycling rates catapult from just 4.8% in 1998 to
over 65% in 2021. The latest national recycling figures for Wales
showed that we recycled 65.4% of our local authority-collected
waste in 2020-21. Eighteen of 22 local authorities in Wales
exceeded the statutory minimum target, and 13 reported an
increase in performance on the previous year. The next statutory
minimum target of 70% by 2024-25 has already been achieved by
Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Conwy and Vale of Glamorgan. If the
hon. Member for Meriden is hoping to find solutions to tackle
waste pollution in his constituency, I urge him to look to
Wales.
There are a couple of further points of interest. On the
international dimension, since China banned the import of waste,
illegal exports to other countries appear to be on the rise. I
wonder why that is. England does not have the necessary waste and
recycling infrastructure. I am afraid that has been made much
worse by the soft-on-crime Conservatives, whose savage cuts have
caused Environment Agency inspections and enforcement action to
plummet since 2010.
When trying to stop waste and fly-tipping in our communities, it
is worth looking at the provision for a deposit return scheme in
Environment Act. That is limited to certain materials, rather
than creating a framework that could be broadened to include more
types of plastics or bioplastics in future. We know that deposit
return schemes work successfully in other countries. We made it
clear throughout Committee stage of the Environment Act that
Labour supports a scheme funded by retailers and producers that
collects plastic bottles, metal cans and single-use and reusable
glass.
This is about pride and who we are as a country. For all the
points we have raised about how to tackle the issue, we cannot
ignore behaviour change. Waste does not just appear; it is caused
by us all—everyday people going about our lives. That is why it
is key that alongside all the enforcement, policies and decision
making here in this place, we keep the focus on educating people.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East () said, education is key.
That starts with how we preserve our planet by disposing of waste
properly and safely, and includes why we all benefit from seeing
and living on clean streets.
I hope the Minister will provide some answers to my questions.
What are her plans to extend the deposit return scheme in the way
Labour suggested? What discussions have taken place with the
Treasury and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities about ensuring that councils have the resources they
need to tackle waste pollution? What lessons have been picked up
from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland about their approach to
tackling toxic waste, fly-tipping and waste pollution? Those are
simple questions and I hope the Minister will be able to give
some answers.
I thank you, Sir Mark, for an interesting debate, and I am
grateful to the hon. Member for Meriden for bringing it to the
Chamber.
3.37pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs ()
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden () and all right hon. and hon.
Members who have come to this Chamber to tell us forcefully that
we need to keep our foot to the floor on fly-tipping. It blights
all our communities across the country, from Wales to the east of
England and from Scotland to Cornwall, but we have heard glimmers
of where working together can start to deliver change.
I hope to go over some of the things that my hon. Friend raised
and to outline a little more how we are driving forward in some
of these areas. As many Members touched upon, and as the head of
the Environment Agency said, waste crime is the new narcotics.
There is a lot of money in it, and it drives antisocial
behaviour. While I am here, I congratulate the hon. Member for
Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs Hamilton) on her powerful
contribution, and her council on being one that really does drive
forward those enforcement measures and ensure that people receive
the full force of what we are able to do, in telling them that it
is not good enough to litter communities and to fly-tip.
The Government have been taking significant action and are
committed to stamping out fly-tipping. I share everyone else’s
abhorrence of it. It blights communities and the environment. It
is extremely impactful on animals and, as we have heard, on human
health on occasion. As my hon. Friends the Members for Sevenoaks
() and for Moray () said, some of the things that
are dumped are completely unacceptable.
Fly-tipping has been debated in the House in previous years.
Since then, we have made significant progress and we have given
local authorities and regulators new tools to tackle the menace,
but we need them to use their powers. It is not enough to keep a
cookery book closed; it has to be opened for the joys to be
discovered. If councils really want to help us with fly-tipping,
they must take every ability we have given them to beat it. We
have strengthened powers to search and seize the vehicles of
suspected fly-tippers. We have legislated to introduce fixed
penalty notices for fly-tipping and for householders who give
their waste to fly-tippers. The hon. Member for Barnsley East
() mentioned the need to
make sure that licences are checked. Actually, that is a
householder’s responsibility, but not everybody knows that they
have to do that. As that system becomes electronic, it will be
considerably easier for people to go online—like we do with other
things—and check the licence. If somebody does not have the
appropriate waste carrier licence, they should not be used for
waste disposal.
It is important to ensure that everybody is up to date. For
example, if a kettle breaks down, as a small electronic good it
can be taken back to the retailer and they will get rid of it.
Not everybody is aware of that, so they can be seen littered
across our countryside. I am due to meet with manufacturers of
mattresses on 6 June, because of mattress mountains—I think it
was my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough () who mentioned mattresses
being dumped. It is a problem up and down the land. Extended
producer responsibility is slowly going through, but I want to
see manufacturers coming forward and voluntarily saying what they
will do with their items. The paint manufacturing industry
recently came to me because it has developed a scheme in
Cambridgeshire, which I hope to see, where paint can be taken
back to any retailer.
Along with things like the DIY consultation, which we will be
completing shortly, it is important that people have options with
what to do with their waste. The majority of fly-tipping is the
size of a small van or the boot of a car. It is small scale,
notwithstanding what my right hon. Friend the Member for South
Staffordshire (Sir ) said was happening in
some areas of the country. My hon. Friend the Member for Keighley
() mentioned tyres. With
particular items, we are having to drill down on how we tackle
them.
Sir
The Minister made the strong point that it is important for local
authorities to take responsibility and to use the powers that
they have as effectively as possible. Is she willing to consider
the prospect of increasing the amount of the fixed penalty fine
that they can levy? I think it is currently set at £500. Could
that be increased substantially?
Fixed penalty notices are currently set at £400. Local
authorities can issue fines of up to £400 to fly-tippers and
householders who pass their waste on to those who are not
licensed. I will take that point away, because my right hon.
Friend is not the first to say that perhaps the fine is not high
enough. However, some councils do not even use the powers that
they have to fine people up to £400. I really urge people to use
everything we have given them.
I am sorry to interrupt the Minister, but just to go back, she
was talking about the need for licensing for waste clearers.
However, in some instances, it is quite easy to get a licence. It
needs to be more rigorous. How do we make sure it is not too easy
for someone who commits a crime, or actually fly-tips, to apply
and be given a licence?
It is about building blocks and making sure that we have the
proper ability to investigate whether waste carriers and brokers
are suitable to hold a waste licence. That is part of what we are
trying to do. I commend the MSP, Mr Fraser, for driving this
forward among the Scottish Conservatives. It is really important
to all our constituents.
I was pleased to see that Aylesbury Crown court recently
sentenced a serial fly-tipper, who had dumped rubbish in multiple
local authorities, to 21 months in prison and seized his van.
That is important, because it shows what many Members present
have asked for: a deterrent and a strong, firm approach.
The Government outlined how we intended to strengthen enforcement
powers through the passing of the landmark Environment Act 2021.
We have fulfilled that commitment. The Act ensures that agencies
and authorities can work effectively to combat waste crime
through better access to evidence and powers of entry. The
Environment Agency was granted access to the national automatic
number plate recognition service in 2021, giving it the ability
to better trace those using vehicles for illegal waste
activities.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden acknowledges, this issue
is not something that my Department can tackle on its own. It is
not enough for us to provide the tools; the tools must be used.
It is also important that we work across Government, which is why
I have spoken to Baroness Vere in the Department for Transport
about National Highways. I note that my hon. Friend the Member
for Wimbledon (), who is no longer present,
asked for a similar approach with Network Rail. It is about us
joining up. My hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth
() spoke about her
council, which has joined up at multiple levels, including
parishes and so on. We can get on top of this problem.
I agree with the hon. Member for Newport West () that this is about education.
We do fund education through WRAP, Keep Britain Tidy, Recycle Now
and others. This year, I have secured funds to drive our
education campaign work forward. I will be looking at how we can
best target that and what we can do with it. I know many
voluntary organisations already do phenomenal work and, although
it is not a laughing matter, have tremendous names—the Rubbish
Friends, the Wombles, and so on. They are encouraging young
people, Scouts groups and many other parts of our community to
get involved to clean up the areas that they love. It is really
commendable.
I urge the councils of all Members present to feed back to us as
much enforcement data as possible. My records show that Solihull
Metropolitan Borough Council has not issued any fixed penalty
notices or brought forward any prosecutions since 2014-15. In
total, 19 local authorities in England reported no action taken
in 2021. Councils keep the proceeds of fixed penalty notices, so
they can use those to step up enforcement efforts. There is
something cyclical here. The hon. Member for Hyndburn () is no longer present, but
neither Rossendale nor Hyndburn has, in fact, issued any FPNs. As
I say, it is good to hear about the joint working, but I need
councils to work with us so that we can do more.
Does the Minister agree that the Government should name and shame
councils that are not issuing fixed penalty notices when concerns
are being raised by their constituents? Does she also agree that
the individuals who are fined and receive fixed penalty notices
should be named and shamed in the public domain?
We are straying into sentencing and so on, which does not come
under my Department. Much of what has been spoken about today
involves me talking to colleagues in the Department for Levelling
Up, Housing and Communities and so on. However, I will take away
those questions, because I think it is right that the fine should
fit the crime. Those discussions are ongoing.
We are looking to improve the environmental quality of all our
communities. We have more ambitious plans, such as introducing
the deposit return scheme to ensure that billions more drink
bottles and cans are safely returned and recycled, and to ensure
that the recyclate coming from that is of a better quality, so
that it can enter a circular economy. I fully agree that that is
what we should be aiming for. As I say, we have spoken to
National Highways to tackle the scourge of roadside litter, and
to the Ministry of Justice to support the community payback
schemes that have been so fantastic at cleaning up some of our
communities. We also want to explore what more can be done on
sentencing for more serious waste-related crimes.
As part of wider reforms, extended producer responsibility will
move the cost of the disposal of packaging in street bins from
local taxpayers and residents on to the producer. I am sure that
that strikes us all as fairer. These measures will have an
enormous impact on plastic and other litter that we see on our
streets, in our and in our waterways. To support innovative local
action, in 2012 we commissioned the Waste and Resources Action
Programme to administer the fly-tipping intervention grant scheme
on our behalf. That was the grant of £450,000, which many Members
mentioned, to enable a number of councils to implement a range of
measures to tackle fly-tipping. Projects being funded include a
combination of artificial intelligence and APNR cameras in
Buckingham, the trial of “No bags on the street” in Newham, CCTV
enforcement in Durham, and directing offenders to a digital
education tool. I am pleased to say that we are looking to extend
that grant, and I will be giving more details. It has been very
popular, and many councils wish they could have availed
themselves of it.
We also recognise the importance of local residents being able to
dispose of rubbish in a responsible, simple way. We are working
with councils on legislative powers to bring in consistent
collections to make the system easier. We are consulting on
preventing charges for DIY waste because, as many Members have
said, that is a problem that blights neighbourhoods. We are also
seeking views on household waste recycling centres because,
again, some behaviours have changed over the past two years with
the covid pandemic. As we have seen, that has led to a rise in
some of the behaviours that we want to drum down on.
Mrs
The Minister talked about recycling centres, and earlier somebody
mentioned mobile recycling centres. Has the Minister done any
evaluation of mobile recycling centres? In Birmingham, they have
proved exceptionally successful. It would be interesting to find
out what work is being done to support local authorities to
expand that type of scheme.
I thank the hon. Lady. I made notes during the debate and can see
everybody’s constituency highlighted, but I cannot see who
mentioned mobile collections. That is a fascinating idea to
explore a little more, particularly for items that are difficult
to recycle, such as lithium batteries. Having a small van where
those items can be left might work very well. Was it my hon.
Friend the Member for Meriden who mentioned mobile
collections?
indicated assent.
I am sure I will pick that up with my hon. Friend after the
debate.
DEFRA continues to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention
Group, through which we work with a wide range of interested
parties, such as local authorities, the police, the Environment
Agency and the National Farmers Union, to disseminate good
education and learning. My own farmers have spoken to me at
length about it, so I know they will be pleased to hear that my
hon. Friend the Member for Meriden highlighted how farmers’ land
is blighted across the country. This is a rural crime, and many
of us understand the impact it has on farmers and businesses,
because they are obliged to clear it up when it is on their
land.
We are currently working with the NFTPG to develop a fly-tipping
toolkit to share best practice. That toolkit will ensure that
people can present robust cases to the courts to support tougher
sentences. We intend to deliver that shortly. We have already
started working on the next element of the toolkit: how councils
can set up and run an effective fly-tipping partnership. We
expect to have that published before the end of the year.
We recently concluded two online consultations on how to tackle
waste crime while supporting people and businesses to manage
waste correctly. I fully agree with my hon. Friend the Member for
South West Hertfordshire () that we must support businesses that are doing the
right thing. Those are the ones that we do not want to be
penalised because others do things badly. We will reform and
strengthen the waste carriers, brokers and dealers regime by
moving it to a permit-based system, increasing competence and the
background checks required to move or trade waste. We are taking
forward the introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking,
which will also help us to detect, enforce and prosecute, as the
hon. Member for Barnsley East pointed out. I hope that it is
clear that we are taking extensive action to tackle the scourge
of fly-tipping. That action, along with the tireless work of
local authorities and many other community organisations, will
deliver significant results.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden once again, and I
also thank the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington, my right
hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire, and my hon.
Friends the Members for Keighley, for Loughborough (), for Hyndburn, for Moray, for
Totnes (), for Peterborough, for
South West Hertfordshire, for Truro and Falmouth and for
Sevenoaks. They are literally from the top to the bottom of our
beautiful country—
“This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself.”
That is the rest of the quote given by my hon. Friend the Member
for Totnes. Let us ensure that we sort this out and do the right
thing.
3.55pm
Thank you for your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I hope that you found
the debate as important and fascinating as I did. Clearly, we
have a range from William Blake, to Shakespeare, to poo today,
which is quite poetic in itself. I thank hon. and right hon.
Members from across the House for their contributions to the
debate. I am sure that their constituents will be incredibly
proud of how they have stood up for them today.
I welcome my neighbour, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington
(Mrs Hamilton), to her first Westminster Hall debate. She talked
about austerity, but I would gently remind her about the
negotiations around the bin strikes that happened, and what that
led to. However, I am sure we will have lots of sparring time in
the Chamber, and I look forward to that, as I am sure she
does.
I thank the Minister for her response. In the research that I
did, there were plenty of Hansard contributions that demonstrated
her determination to deal with this issue, and I thank her for
that. I am pleased to hear about the further funding intentions,
and that she will also think about the mobile recycling units,
which I am very keen to pursue for my own council.
I will keep my remarks very short, but given the strength of
feeling, I am sure the Government have taken a strong steer and
that the message will go back. I thank my very noble and
committed parish councils and the community groups I have named.
They inspire me every day to keep Meriden clean and tidy.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the matter of tackling fly-tipping
and illegal dumping.
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