Baroness Sheehan writes to the Environment Agency over concerns it did not reference significant illegal waste sites when giving evidence to the recent waste crime inquiry.
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee inquiry into waste crime found it was difficult to conclude that ‘incompetence’ at the Environment Agency has not been a factor in failures to prevent and effectively prosecute waste crime.
As part of the regulator’s evidence to the inquiry it submitted the locations of several illegal waste sites in England.
Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, has now expressed concerns about several highly environmentally damaging waste crime sites that were not highlighted during the Environment Agency’s evidence.
These include the high-profile 150m high waste dump in Kidlington, as well as illegal waste sites in Wigan and Wadborough.
Baroness Sheehan said she has written to the Chair and Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Alan Lovell and Philip Duffy, to seek clarification on concerns the Committee has regarding the regulator’s awareness of and response to these sites.
“Since the Environment Agency gave evidence to our inquiry into serious and organised waste crime, we have become increasingly alarmed by the reporting of new waste crime sites in the media, which, we now know, the Environment Agency knew about but failed to reference in evidence provided to us,” Baroness Sheehan said.
“We are disappointed that these sites were not deemed necessary to bring to the committee’s attention.”
The Environment Agency has been approached for comment.
As part of the inquiry, the Lords heard from a range of witnesses, including community groups, the Environment Agency, a Government Minister and officials, Police and Crime Commissioners and waste management specialists.
Witnesses expressed concerns regarding the effectiveness of the Environment Agency’s practices, the amount of funding available for it to tackle waste crime, and how it uses the funding available to it.
The Lords were also critical of the police, saying they were ‘unimpressed’ with the lack of interest they showed in tackling waste crime.