Agencies to be given enhanced waste crime powers

Responding to comments gathered during its consultation on enhanced enforcement powers to tackle waste crime, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) outlined a series of measures intended to beef up waste crime enforcement.

The consultation, which launched in January (see letsrecycle.com story), was carried out jointly by Defra and the Welsh Government, so will also see Natural Resources Wales (NRW) given new powers to tackle waste criminals.

The proposals will see regulators given enhanced powers for suspending permits and issuing enforcement notices, as well as widening the regulators’ ability to require the removal of waste from land.

This includes tightening up on the technical and financial competence of operators, the need for a fund to clear up abandoned sites, and the introduction of fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping.

Cost

According to Defra, waste crime activities cost the UK more than £500 million each year through the small-scale and organised fly-tipping, illegal dumping of waste and the illegal operation of waste management sites.

The new legislation will, Defra said:

• Enable the regulators to suspend a permit where an operator has breached their permit and there is a resulting risk of pollution.
• Enable the regulators to specify in a suspension notice the steps that must be taken by the operator to remedy the breach of a permit and remove the risk of pollution; and require the operator to erect signage which informs the public about waste that cannot be brought onto the facility.
• Enable the regulators to take steps to prohibit access to a facility.
• Enable the regulators to take steps to remove a risk of serious pollution, regardless of whether the facility affected is regulated under a permit.
• Make it easier for the regulators to make an application to the High Court for an injunction to enforce compliance with an enforcement or other notice by removing the current precondition.
• Amend the legislation to widen the regulators’ ability to require the removal of waste from land in circumstances where the waste is being unlawfully kept.

In its consultation response, the Department noted: “The weight of argument is in favour of giving stronger powers to the regulators to take action against persistent and entrenched poor performance by some operators in the industry. The government agrees that enforcement powers should continue to be linked to a risk of pollution rather than simply the breach of an enforcement notice.

“We therefore propose to make an amendment to regulation 37 of the 2010 Regulations. The amended legislation will expand the regulators’ powers to issue a suspension notice where there has been a breach of a permit condition and a consequent risk of pollution. This amendment will apply to all activities regulated under the 2010 Regulations and not just waste operations.”