Lords ‘deeply disappointed’ by ‘complacent’ government response to inquiry

The Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee launched an inquiry into waste crime earlier this year, with its findings published on 28 October 2025.

It that found that “waste crime is critically under-prioritised despite its significant environmental, economic and social costs”.

The letter highlighted “multiple failures” by the Environment Agency (EA), the “ineffectiveness” of its Joint Unit for Waste Crime and “a lack of interest shown” by the police in tackling waste crime.

The House of Lords committee called for the government to urgently commission an independent review into the issue.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Emma Reynolds responded to the inquiry yesterday (9 December 2025), confirming she had met with Philip Duffy, Chief Executive of the EA, to discuss the recommendations.

Reynolds said that she would “prefer not to divert significant resource” away from ongoing waste reforms by launching a review at this time.

She added that an independent review was conducted in 2018, which formed the basis of the current reforms.

House of Lords ‘deeply disappointed’

Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee said: “The Committee is deeply disappointed with the Government’s complacent response.

“It will give succour to the organised criminal gangs who are profiteering from waste crime and inflicting misery on impacted communities across the country whilst damaging precious environments.”

She added that she will send further communication to the Secretary of State “in due course”.

Industrial-scale waste crime

Hoads 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 between 2020 and 2023.

The EA told the waste crime inquiry that it was aware of six other sites of a similar size:

• Two in Lancashire (Burnley)
• One in Cheshire (Northwich)
• One in Kent (Sittingbourne)
• One in Cornwall (Camborne)
• One in Norfolk (Fakenham)

Since the inquiry concluded, other sites have been identified, including in Oxfordshire (Kidlington) and Wigan.

Baroness Sheehan subsequently wrote to Duffy and the Chair of the EA Alan Lovell on Friday (5 December 2025) to highlight the committee’s concerns about the increasing number of such sites.