§ Ms Bridget PrenticeTo ask the secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many enforcement officers are employed in London by the2W Environment Agency (a) to check trade waste agreements of business, (b) to check unauthorised waste carries, (c) to tackle other breaches of the Environment Protection Act and the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989 and (d) to tackle environmental crime in general. [148721]
Mr. Robert AinsworthThe information is as follows:
(a) Trade waste agreements under section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 are a matter for local authorities as waste collection authorities; and no enforcement officers are employed by the Environment Agency on checking them.
(b) and (c) The Agency employs 16 officers in the London area whose role includes checking unauthorised waste carriers and other breaches of the 1990 Act and the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989.
(d) A further seven full-time equivalents are employed by the Agency to deal with environmental crime in general in the London area.
§ Ms Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many prosecutions have been brought by the Environment Agency for fly tipping in the past six years in(a) Lewisham and (b) London. [148728]
Mr. Robert AinsworthThe information is as follows:
(a) Neither the Environment Agency nor the Crime and Criminal Justice Unit of the Home Office holds data on prosecutions brought in Lewisham.
(b) The term fly-tipping is not legally defined but is generally used to refer to the illegal disposal of waste on a site without either a waste management licence or a registered licensing exemption—in contravention of sections 33 or 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. However, it is also an offence under section 33 to dispose of waste in contravention of a licence. The available data neither separately identify the two different types of offence under section 33 nor distinguish between prosecutions brought by the Environment Agency, local authorities or the police.
Subject to these considerations, the total number of defendants prosecuted at magistrates courts for offences under sections 33 or 34 of the 1990 Act in the Metropolitan police area in the past six years is:
Year Number 1995 31 1996 34 1997 39 1998 56 1999 70 2000 Data not yet available
§ Ms Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many prosecutions the Environment Agency has brought against unlicensed waste carriers in London. [148733]
Mr. Robert AinsworthThe available records do not separately identify waste carriers involved in prosecutions brought for contravention of waste management controls other than section 1 of the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989 (offence of transporting controlled waste without registering). The number of prosecutions 3W brought under section 1 of the 1989 Act in the Metropolitan police area for calendar years during which the Agency has been in operation is:
Year Number 1996 0 1997 1 1998 1 1999 0 2000 1— 1 Data not yet available