Under the proposals, anyone convicted of any crime relating to metal theft will be barred from working legitimately in the scrap business. Further changes proposed for existing legislation will also mean anyone convicted of transporting stolen metal could be forced out of business by having their carrier registration taken off them.
Lord Taylor said: Stolen metal will be too hot to handle. Mindless criminals who steal from our railways and historic buildings, and the scrap dealers who fuel the market, are causing misery and anger for countless people.
Well purge the industry of rotten elements by flushing them out of legitimate businesses, or shutting dodgy businesses down altogether.
Cash ban
Todays announcement follows the announcement of 5 million to establish a dedicated metal theft taskforce to enhance law enforcement activity in this area, and the Home Secretarys commitment to ban cash payments for scrap metal, as the governments drive to tackle metal theft (see letsrecycle.com story).
The government will toughen the range of convictions taken into consideration when deciding who is suitable to operate a business that either transports or handles waste, which includes scrap yards, giving the Environment Agency more power to crack down on anyone convicted of involvement in stealing metal.
Environment Agency
Environment Agency chief executive Paul Leinster said: Metal theft continues to be a major problem so we welcome the wider range of convictions that will be available to us when deciding whether to issue or remove environmental permits.
This builds on work we are doing to support the British Transport Polices crackdown on metal theft and our on-going work to tackle illegal waste sites. Waste crime puts people and the environment at risk and undercuts legitimate businesses who take their environmental responsibilities seriously.
Convictions relating to pollution, harm to the environment or nuisance to nearby communities have previously been the only areas allowed to be taken into consideration when deciding whether a person or business is a suitable person to run a waste facility or act as a waste carrier.
From April 2012, the Environment Agency will also take into consideration convictions linked with metal theft alongside other criteria when scrutinising all new applications for an environmental permit to run a scrap yard in response to the rising incidence of metal theft.
MPs debated measures to stamp out metal theft at a late session in Westminster last night, during a motion tabled by backbench MP Graham Jones. Mr Jones, the Labour MP for Hyndburn, who has previously had a private members bill on metal theft prevention rejected by parliament, called on government to introduce tougher legislation to prevent the illegal trade in scrap metal.
He said: The Government need not just to look at the timetable and to bring forward legislation as soon as they can; they need to go beyond legislation. We need to consider being far more proactive.
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