The Prime Minister has announced that mayors, council leaders, and the Environment Agency will be given new powers to tackle waste crime.
West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester will be the first areas to be given new ‘region-led approaches’ to waste crime, which will allow them to take the lead in co-ordinating councils, police, regulators, and other enforcement agencies.
The plans aim to ensure Mayors lead responses to waste crime in their own areas and facilitate better intelligence and capability sharing at a local level through a reformed partnership between national and regional agencies and councils.
The arrangements build on the national partnership model of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, but aim to ensure decisions are driven by regional intelligence and by the communities worst affected by waste crime.
The PM also announced that the Environment Agency will increase the number of enforcement officers on the frontline, as well as a ‘bigger role’ for the police and the National Crime Agency.
The Environment Agency is also set to increase its capacity to find and confiscate the proceeds of waste crime from offenders, including cash, cars, and houses.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said waste crime has been a ‘clear sign’ to communities that ‘politics hasn’t been working for them’.
“This government is going to tackle the issues that have been ignored by Westminster for too long and bring back hope,” Burnham said.
“The days of making easy money out of waste are over. We’re giving authorities the powers to hunt down the people responsible. We will seize their assets and shut their operations down.”
In March, the government announced plans to grant the Environment Agency ‘police-style’ powers that would allow enforcement officers to arrest suspected criminals, seize assets, and search premises without a warrant.
As part of the new plans, Burnham said the upper limit for fines for anyone who ‘dumps waste illegally or fail (sic) to treat it correctly’ would increase to £5,000, up from the current maximum of £300.
Circular Online has approached the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) to clarify what offences the fine increases apply to.
The government has also launched a consultation on introducing powers for local authorities to issue conditional cautions to fly-tipping offenders.
The plans are part of a crackdown to stop criminal gangs profiting from illegal waste activity, which the government says is ‘blighting communities’.
The announcement was welcomed by Dan Cooke, CIWM’s Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs, who called the plans ‘significant’.
CIWM (Chartered Institution of Wastes Management) is a partner on the Joint Unit on Waste Crime and the Government’s Tackling Waste Crime Performance Board.
“Our sector will not be defined by those who seek to undermine it and who profit from the misery, anxiety, and real damage that waste crime causes at every level,” Cooke continued.
“The sector has a critical role to play in this effort. By sharing intelligence and information, we can help target enforcement activity and disrupt the criminal activity undercutting legitimate businesses and operators.”
John Scanlon, Executive Vice President UK, SUEZ, called the announcement ‘an encouraging sign of a more joined-up and robust approach to waste crime, with a shift in emphasis towards identifying and dismantling the criminal networks involved’.
“The government’s proposal to bring national and regional agencies together to tackle the serious problem of waste crime is very much welcomed by those of us who operate responsibly within the sector,” Scanlon said.
