Lords committee opens waste crime inquiry

The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee opens its short inquiry into waste crime on Wednesday 3 September by hearing from industry stakeholders from the waste and environmental services sector.

The session will take place from 10am. It can be followed live or afterwards on Parliament TV or in person in the Palace of Westminster (committee room 4).

Giving evidence will be:

• Sam Corp,
  Head of Regulation, Environmental Services Association (ESA);
   
• Donald Macphail,
  Chief Operating Officer, Treatment and Hazardous Waste, UK, Veolia;
  
  
• Dan Cooke,
  Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs, Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

Questions from the committee will cover the following areas:

• the scale and evolution of waste crime;
• the environmental and economical impacts of waste crime;
• the waste sector's vulnerability to exploitation by organised criminality;
• the sufficiency of penalties for committing waste crime;
• collaboration between different public bodies in relation to waste crime;
• anticipated Government measures to tackle waste crime.

Notes to editors

1. The Environment and Climate Change Committee considers matters relating to the environment and climate change.
   
   
2. This short inquiry will consider waste crime, with a focus on serious and organised waste crime such as illegal waste sites and illegal dumping that pose a serious environmental risk. It will seek to understand the avenues for and prevalent forms of waste crime and their impacts. It will also aim to assess the efficacy of current regulatory, monitoring and enforcement regimes and consider the Government's plans to address the problem.