{"id":783,"date":"2025-12-11T08:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/?p=783"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:03:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:03:03","slug":"defra-accused-of-complacency-over-waste-crime-inquiry-by-lords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/defra-accused-of-complacency-over-waste-crime-inquiry-by-lords\/","title":{"rendered":"Defra accused of complacency over waste-crime inquiry by Lords"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/div>\n

\"Defra\"<\/h4>\n

The Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has said it is deeply disappointed by the government\u2019s \u2018complacent\u2019 response to its waste-crime inquiry.<\/h4>\n

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds has now responded to the waste crime inquiry, which was heavily critical of the Environment Agency and police<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The inquiry\u2019s key recommendation was for the government to hold an independent review of how waste crime is tackled.<\/p>\n

However, Reynolds rejected calls for an independent review<\/a>, writing she would prefer not to \u2018divert significant resource\u2019 from planned reforms, such as Digital Waste Tracking (DWT) and waste carriers, brokers and dealers (CBD) changes.<\/p>\n

The Committee Chair, Baroness Sheehan, called the response \u2018complacent\u2019 and claimed it will \u2018give succour\u2019 to organised waste criminals.<\/p>\n

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson told Circular Online<\/em>: \u201cThis government is bearing down on the cynical waste criminals who damage our environment, harm legitimate businesses and blight our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making waste gangs pay for their crimes by working with the Environment Agency to stop the exploitation of our waste system, giving them more officers and 50% more funding to boost waste crime enforcement, and handing out tougher sentences for those who break the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Baroness Sheehan claimed the response will \u2018give succour\u2019 to organised waste criminals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The inquiry also found that the Environment Agency\u2019s Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) \u2018appears ineffective\u2019. The JUWC is a multi-agency task force that was established five years ago to lead efforts to tackle serious and organised waste crime.<\/p>\n

The Lords recommended that the JUWC improve collaboration between bodies with responsibility for waste crime at the local level, especially policing and local government.<\/p>\n

In her response, Reynolds emphasised that the role of the JUWC is not to arrest and prosecute criminals but to facilitate collaboration between partners to tackle waste crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that increased collaboration at a local level can only be beneficial,\u201d Reynolds wrote. \u00a0<\/p>\n

However, she said that attempting to establish stronger relationships at the national level with local authorities has generally \u2018proved ineffective\u2019 because of the challenge of finding \u2018one or two representatives for over 300 local authorities\u2019.<\/p>\n

Reynolds concluded by saying that the JUWC does remain open to this kind of representation in the future.<\/p>\n

CIWM calls response ‘largely pragmatic’<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cooke told the inquiry that waste crime is a \u20181 billion pound problem\u2019 and is getting worse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) called the government\u2019s response to the inquiry \u2018largely pragmatic\u2019.<\/p>\n

Dan Cooke, CIWM Director of Policy Comms & External Affairs, said: \u201cWaste crime continues to cause misery and anxiety to communities, hampers local economic well-being and is a significant drag on the UK economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professional resources and waste sector delivers quality services to UK households and businesses day-in, day-out to protect health, the environment and enable economies to thrive, and is determined to help tackle waste crime at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooke, who gave evidence to the inquiry<\/a>, continued that there were practical opportunities and actions available to the government and regulators to accelerate progress on tackling waste crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cCIWM will shortly publish further details on these opportunities and looks forward to working with UK governments and regulators to implement these,\u201d Cooke said. \u201cWe must and will continue to shine the spotlight on this priority issue, and to hold those responsible to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Anna Willetts, who gave evidence to the inquiry<\/a> about the scale, impacts and regulation of waste crime,\u00a0told Circular Online<\/em> she was sceptical that DWT would be effective at reducing illegal waste dumping.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to deal with this level of crime is robust and proper enforcement and stopping it before it happens \u2013 not sitting around watching it happen and then shutting the stable door after the waste criminal has bolted,\u201d Dr Willetts, Co-Convener at UK Environmental Law Association Waste Working Party, said.<\/p>\n

Waste crime inquiry chair questions Environment Agency\u2019s evidence<\/h2>\n

Last week, Baroness Sheehan wrote to the Environment Agency over concerns it did not reference significant illegal waste sites<\/a> when giving evidence to the waste crime inquiry.<\/p>\n

As part of the regulator\u2019s evidence to the inquiry, it submitted the locations of several illegal waste sites in England. However, these did not include the\u00a0high-profile 150m high waste dump in Kidlington<\/a>, as well as illegal waste sites in Wigan and Wadborough.<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency said it was asked to provide the number of illegal dumps the\u00a0size of Hoads Wood or larger<\/a>, and the sites covered in the media did not meet this criteria.<\/p>\n

The regulator told the committee it was\u00a0aware of six other illegal waste sites<\/a> estimated to be as large as or larger than the Hoads Wood dump.<\/p>\n

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: \u201cThese claims are inaccurate. We have engaged with Baroness Sheehan\u2019s inquiry in good faith and have responded comprehensively to the questions posed to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Defra accused of complacency over waste-crime inquiry by Lords<\/a> appeared first on Circular Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has said it is deeply disappointed by the government\u2019s \u2018complacent\u2019 response to its waste-crime inquiry. Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds has now responded to the waste crime inquiry, which was heavily critical of the Environment Agency and police. The inquiry\u2019s key recommendation was for the government to hold…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textosbreves.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}