DEFRA Secretary of State called to give evidence on waste crime to Lords committee

Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has written to Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs today (Monday 15 December).

The letter can be viewed and downloaded at:
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50764/documents/278077/default/

Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee said:

“I have written to Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs today (Monday 15 December), to express the Committee's deep disappointment in her recent letter of response to our inquiry on waste crime.

It is apparent from both our inquiry and the subsequent reports of large-scale illegal fly-tipping in different parts of the country that whatever actions the Government is taking, they are not sufficient to deal with the problem.

I have therefore invited the Secretary of State to give evidence to the Committee at the earliest opportunity to explain, in person, the Government's plans to reduce the scourge of waste crime which is  inflicting misery on impacted communities across the country and damaging precious environments.”

Notes to editors

1. Opened in July 2025, the Committee's short inquiry considered 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 sought to understand the avenues for and prevalent forms of waste crime and their impacts. It also aimed to assess the efficacy of current regulatory, monitoring and enforcement regimes and consider the Government's plans to address the problem.
   
   
2. The Committee sent a letter to Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on Tuesday 28 October outlining the findings and recommendations from the inquiry.
   
   
3. The Committee called on the Government to get tough on serious and organised waste crime by setting up a root and branch review after highlighting multiple failures by the Environment Agency, the ineffectiveness of its Joint Unit for Waste Crime and a lack of interest shown by the police in tackling what has been described as “the new narcotics”.
   
   
4. In addition to the waste crime site in Hoads Wood Kent, the Environment Agency told the committee that they were aware of six other sites of similar size:
   
   Lancashire – Burnley x 2
   Cheshire – Northwich
   Kent – Sittingbourne
   Cornwall – Camborne
   Norfolk - Fakenham
   
   Since then, other sites have been reported in the media in Oxfordshire (Kidlington), Wigan and Worcestershire (Wadborough).
   
   
   
5. Baroness Sheehan wrote to the Environment Agency's (EA) Alan Lovell (Chair) and Philip Duffy (Chief Executive) on Friday 5 December over the committee's concerns about the increasing number of highly environmentally damaging waste crime sites being discovered since the Committee's inquiry.
   
   
6. On Wednesday 10 December, the Committee published the letter it received from Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs  in response to its letter outlining the findings and recommendations from the Committee's inquiry into illegal waste crime (sent on Tuesday 28 October).