§ Lord Gainfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will publish the report of the Department of the Environment's Advisory Group on Litter.
§ Viscount UllswaterA summary of the report of the Advisory Group on Litter which has been reviewing the litter provisions contained in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and elsewhere has been placed in the Library of the House. The group has concluded that overall the 1990 Act has made a significant effect but that there are some areas of the legislation in England and Wales which could usefully be improved. The key recommendations of the Advisory Group are:
publication of information to inform the citizen about how their local authority plans to fulfil its litter duty; improvements to the way in which litter on private land can be dealt with by local authorities;
improved powers to enable local authorities to target business or commercial activities which result in litter on adjacent public areas;
replacement of the existing patchwork of dog fouling bye-laws with a national offence of failure to clear up after one's dog in most public areas;
improvements to the litter fixed penalty system so local authority contractors can, subject to certain safeguards, issue penalty notices and to allow extension of the fixed penalty system to dog fouling offences;
increasing the fixed penalty from £10 to £25 in line with the general increase in fine levels since the litter provisions were brought into effect.
The full report will be available on request from the Department of the Environment.
We are grateful to the members of the advisory group for their work in producing this report. We are sure that there will be wide interest in these recommendations. In view of this, we are publishing the summary report as a consultation document. We would encourage all interested parties to let the Department of the Environment have their views by 14 October 1994.