In a letter sent today (28 October 2025) to Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the cross-party Environment and Climate Change Committee warned that “waste crime is critically under-prioritised despite its significant environmental, economic and social costs”.
The letter follows an inquiry conducted by the committee, which heard from a range of witnesses including community groups, the Environment Agency (EA), government officials, Police and Crime Commissioners and waste management companies.
Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, said: “During our inquiry we heard that over 38 million tonnes of waste is being illegally dumped each year mainly by established organised crime groups involved in drugs, firearms, money laundering and modern slavery.
“Despite the scale and seriousness of the crimes, raised by the members of the public in many cases, we have found multiple failings by the Environment Agency and other agencies from slow responses to repeated public reports through to a woeful lack of successful convictions.”
‘Demonstrable inadequacy’ of enforcement
In the letter, the committee stated that it was “deeply concerned about the demonstrable inadequacy of the current approach to tackling waste crime”, citing multiple failures by the EA, the ineffectiveness of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and the lack of interest shown by police.
Hoad’s Wood in Kent was cited as a particularly significant instance in the inquiry. Over 30,000 tonnes of household and construction waste was dumped in the area, with the fly-tipping problem first starting in 2020 and escalating in 2023.
On the matter, the letter concluded: “The Environment Agency is slow to respond to even the most flagrant and serious illegality, while the environment and communities suffer.”
The committee recommended:
- The establishment of a single telephone number and online reporting tool for the public to report waste crime
- The Joint Unit for Waste Crime to improve collaboration between bodies responsible for waste crime at a local level
- A treasury review of rules on managing public money preventing the EA to divert resources from its regulatory work to crime enforcement
- The EA to implement its proposed waste crime levy
- An assessment of the risks of landfill tax reform increasing waste crime
- Mandatory digital waste tracking to be delivered on time
- Defra to develop interim targets to measure progress, which should be published quarterly
The committee urged the review and resulting Government response should both be completed by May 2027 at the latest.
Baroness Sheehan commented: “The Government and other agencies must act now on our recommendations, including starting an independent review. There is no time to waste.”
‘Stronger enforcement and harsher penalties’
Dan Cooke, Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs at CIWM, said: “The negative impact this crime imposes on the professional and legitimate resources and waste sector and on local economies, alongside the wider environmental damage it causes, confirms that tackling waste crime must be treated by Government as a definitive sector and societal priority.
“CIWM fully supports the Committee’s call for more effective, integrated enforcement. We recognise that this is a complex issue. There are, however, some promising examples of local authorities, police, regulators, and landowners working together to tackle waste crime and we must learn from these and expand effective approaches.”
Sam Corp, Head of Regulation at the ESA, added: “We welcome the recommendations of the committee that Government should undertake an independent review of the current regulatory approach, while taking more immediate action to overhaul the regulations; develop interim targets and bolster the resources of regulatory bodies.
“In the long term, we need to see much stronger enforcement and harsher penalties to deter criminals, and we also need to have in place a more robust permitting regime coupled with digital waste tracking to ensure waste cannot fall into the hands of criminals in the first place.”
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