Investigation into government’s actions to combat waste crime in England

Investigation into government’s actions to combat waste crime in England - National Audit Office

Government does not have the data it needs to assess the scale of waste crime in England, and the incentives for criminals to enter the waste market have increased, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

The 25-Year Environment Plan, published in 2018, states government’s ambition to eliminate waste crime and illegal waste sites in England within 25 years (by 2043).1 The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) set out its approach to tackling waste crime in the Resources and Waste Strategy (the Strategy), and the Environment Agency (the Agency) is responsible for investigating waste crime. The Joint Unit for Waste Crime (the Joint Unit) was established in January 2020 to tackle serious and organised crime in the waste sector and consists of nine strategic partner organisations.

Defra and the Agency understand the nature of waste crime but recognise that the data they collect does not reflect its full extent. They have committed to improving how they measure waste crime, including through electronic tracking. Today’s NAO report finds:

The number of active illegal waste sites in England known to the Agency has reduced from 685 in 2018-19 to 470 in 2020-21. However, travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in fewer cases being identified.
The number of fly-tipping incidents reported by local authorities has risen most years since 2012-13 and reached 1.13 million in 2020-21 – at a cost of £11.6 million to clear large-scale incidents. Most incidents involved household waste, and the most common place for fly-tipping to occur was on highways.
Based on a 2015 estimate, the Agency believes that there is widespread abuse of exemptions from environmental permits for certain waste operations.
The Agency does not know the scale of the illegal export of waste that may cause serious harm in the countries it is sent to. Since 2013-14, the number of containers intercepted and found to contain waste being exported illegally has varied between 200 and 500 containers per year.

The large rise in the standard rate of landfill tax2 has increased the returns criminals can potentially make from certain types of waste crime. The rise in landfill tax saw the amount of waste sent to landfill reduce by 75% between 2010-11 and 2020-21. At the same time, there has been an increase in the money criminals can make by avoiding landfill tax through the misdescription of waste, illegal waste sites, and some types of fly-tipping. HM Revenue & Customs estimates that in 2019-20, £200 million of landfill tax was not paid through non-compliance.