Fly-tipping (Hansard, 21 July 2004)

§ Richard Ottaway
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will propose to the Environment Agency that it establish a national enforcement squad to specialise in detection and prosecution of incidences of fly-tipping, especially of hazardous waste. [183231]

§ Mr. Morley
Defra has been working closely with the Environment Agency on proposals to help tackle fly-tipping. The agency already has a national enforcement
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These studies look at the direct impact of different waste management activities, but do not employ a full life cycle analysis to take account of, for example, the benefits of recycling.
Table C4 in Appendix B to Waste Strategy 2000 Part 2 provides estimates of the external costs and benefits of different waste management options (Source: adapted from Coopers and Lybrand (1997)).
concordat and enforcement officers who deal primarily with tackling investigation of serious, larger incidents of fly-tipping.
Defra will work closely with the agency on efforts to increase the enforcement of illegally disposed waste by ensuring they have a comprehensive toolkit of powers to deal with fly-tipping.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gave the Secretary of State power to issue statutory directions to the agency and local authorities on the division of responsibilities for using their clear up powers to tackle fly-tipping. Defra has recently consulted on the proposed directions, which will be issued shortly.

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions she has had with the Environment Agency on fly-tipping; and what joint activities are being undertaken. [183707]

§ Mr. Morley
[holding answer 13 July 2004]Defra has been working very closely with the Environment Agency to tackle fly-tipping. Recent work has included bringing forward measures in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, which allowed the Secretary of State to issue statutory directions to the Agency and local authorities to clarify the division of responsibility for dealing with fly-tipping.
The ASB Act also led to the development of the Flycapture database, which the Agency has developed on behalf of Defra. The system went live on 5 April 2004 and take-up has been encouraging, with around 90 per cent. of local authorities registered in the first month.
Defra are currently exploring with the Agency the possibility of developing a comprehensive training package tailored for local authorities. This will allow the Agency to pass on their experience in enforcement to local authorities ensuring fly-tipping is prevented and penalised accordingly.
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The Department will carry on working closely with the Environment Agency to ensure that they have a suitable toolkit of powers to properly tackle the illegal disposal of waste or fly-tipping.

§ Richard Ottaway
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 to extend the requirement to report fly-tipping to fly-tipping on private land. [183226]

§ Mr. Morley
Section 55 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 set up a requirement for waste collection authorities and the Environment Agency to submit data to Defra on incidents of fly-tipping. The new database went live in April.
Take up of the system has been excellent with over 90 per cent. of authorities registered but it is important to ensure that reliability and quality of current data sources is as good as possible before exploring extending the system. The requirements to report to Flycapture will be reviewed after the first year of operation.

§ Richard Ottaway
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will bring forward legislative proposals to make fly-tipping an arrestable offence. [183232]

§ Mr. Morley
Under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 the illegal disposal of hazardous waste can incur imprisonment of up to five years on conviction on indictment. This automatically makes it an arrestable offence. Arrest without warrant can occur in relation to arrestable offences or in relation to nonarrestable offences in particular circumstances.
It is open to question however, whether it would be possible to justify, by reference to the level of seriousness, making any act of fly tipping by itself an arrestable offence or one attracting a custodial sentence. However, my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, has indicated his intention under the Police Reform Act 2002 to conduct a public consultation on modernising police powers, which includes the intention to rationalise the powers of arrest.