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<p>Defra publishes annual fly-tipping statistics for England, with the most recent
publication on 7 November 2019 detailing the number of fly-tipping incidents reported
by local authorities in the year to 31 March 2019. These can be found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england</a>.
The statistics show that incidents of fly-tipping have gradually increased over the
last five years, albeit with a decrease reported between 2016/17 and 2017/18. The
2018/19 figures reported an increase of 8% from 2017/18. However, this most recent
increase in recorded incidents does not necessarily mean the number of fly-tipping
incidents has increased. Local authorities have reported that as they make it easier
for citizens to report fly-tipping, for example through mobile apps, they see an increase
in the number of incidents recorded.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2017/18 we have changed the
way that we present the costs of dealing with fly-tipping. The standard unit costs
used for the majority of clearance and enforcement categories in previous statistical
releases are now more than 10 years out of date. Defra therefore took the decision
to cease using these costs from the 2017/18 fly-tipping statistical release onwards
and total cost estimates for fly-tipping clearance and enforcement are not currently
produced. However, we do report the clearance costs for ‘tipper lorry load’ and ‘significant/multi
load’ incident categories, and enforcement costs for ‘prosecutions’, as these are
reported directly by local authorities.</p><p> </p><p>In 2018/19, 3% of all fly-tipping
incidents were of ‘tipper lorry load’ size or larger, compared with 4% in 2017/18.
This is consistent with the 3% of these incidents reported in 2014/15. The cost of
clearance to local authorities in England have shown an increase however, costing
£12.9 million in 2018/19, compared with £12.2 million in 2017/18 and £7.3 million
in 2014/15.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities carried out a total of 2,397 prosecutions
for fly-tipping offences in England in 2018/19, an increase of 7% on 2017/18 and 32%
on 2014/15. Costs of prosecution actions have subsequently increased, from £288,037
in 2014/15 to £1,002,000 in 2018/19. The success rates for prosecution actions against
fly-tipping are consistently above 95% and have been since records began in 2007/08.</p><p>
</p><p>In 2018, Defra commissioned a review into serious and organised criminality
in the waste sector. This considered the operation of organised criminal gangs in
the waste industry, including in relation to illegal dumping and fly-tipping. The
recommendations of this review were included within our Resources and Waste Strategy
(RWS), published in December 2018, which set out an ambitious package of commitments
to modernise the way waste is regulated, in order to prevent, detect, and deter waste
crime, including fly-tipping. In recent years, we have bolstered local authorities’
powers to tackle fly-tipping and we committed to further reforms in the RWS.</p><p>
</p><p>We are taking forward the commitment in the RWS to develop proposals for the
reform of the waste carrier, broker, and dealer regime. We are working with industry
and the regulator and we intend to consult later this year. At the same time, we intend
to consult on the introduction of mandatory electronic waste tracking. This will reduce
the ability of waste criminals to hide evidence of the systematic mishandling of waste
and make it easier for enforcement authorities to identify material dropping out of
the system, and therefore make it easier to protect against fly-tipping.</p><p> </p><p>The
Environment Bill provides a significant step forward in delivering a number of the
commitments set out in the RWS. The provisions in the Environment Bill will work to
ensure waste criminals, such as illegitimate waste operators reliant on fly-tipping
for income, are held accountable for their actions.</p><p> </p><p>Defra has previously
worked with the Sentencing Council to amend sentencing guidance for fly-tipping offences
and will continue this work to help to secure tougher penalties in line with the Government’s
manifesto commitment.</p><p> </p><p>As well as legislative changes, Defra is developing
a fly-tipping toolkit, following a commitment in the RWS. The toolkit will be a web-based
tool to help local authorities and others work in partnership to tackle fly-tipping.
It will cover, for example, the use of new technology to report fly-tipping, the presentation
of cases to court, the sharing of intelligence within and between partnerships and
promoting the duty of care to individuals and businesses.</p>
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