§ 81. Mrs. PeacockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what measures he is proposing to tackle the problem of fly-tipping.
§ Mr. TrippierThe Environmental Protection Bill contains a number of measures to tackle the problem of fly-tipping. The Bill carries forward from the Control of Pollution Act 1974 the offence of depositing waste without a licence. The Bill extends the provision through the duty of care on all producers, carriers and other holders of waste who must take all reasonable steps to ensure that their waste is not illegally disposed of by any other person. To this end, they would be responsible for ensuring that waste is handed over to an authorised person and is packaged and described in a way which allows that other person to take care of it safely.
There is also provision in the Bill for a person controlling the use of a vehicle that has been used for fly-tipping to be prosecuted unless he can show that he used due diligence to prevent an offence being committed. This is aimed at organised fly-tipping where it is particularly difficult to prosecute the owner of a vehicle who may benefit from the crime but not actually drive the vehicle.