The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2016-05-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the levels of fly-tipping on private land across the UK in each of the last five years.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Fly-tipping is unacceptable whether it occurs on public or private land, it spoils our enjoyment of the countryside, can harm human health and wildlife, and damage farming and rural tourism. It also undermines legitimate waste businesses where unscrupulous operators undercut those that operate within the law and is a drain on both local authorities and landowners that clear it up. Tackling this scourge and other forms of illegal waste activity is a priority for the Government.
The exact extent of fly-tipping on private land is unknown as landowners are not required to report this to Defra. However landowner estimates, provided to the Defra chaired National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, suggest that fly-tipping on private land may cost between £50 million and £150 million per annum in clean up and disposal costs alone.
Some private landowner organisations do report fly-tipping on their land to Defra on a voluntary basis. Between April 2009 and April 2016 these organisation reported some 5,946 fly-tipping incidents on their land. We recognise that the data collected does not fully reflect the scale of the problem.
We recognise the inconvenience and costs that fly-tipping poses to landowners and we are working with a wide range of interested parties through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to improve understanding and awareness of the problem as well as sharing best practice about tackling it.
