Recommendation 20

The Environment Agency told us that tackling illegal waste sites is also the responsibility of local authorities or the police. The Environment Agency lacks some powers to act, such as civil enforcement powers which are often faster and cheaper than criminal prosecutions.51 The Environment Agency told us about its actions to intervene at an illegal waste site at Kidlington in Oxfordshire. Once the Environment Agency received “confirmed intelligence” about the illegal waste dumping, it told us that it was on site two days later and had made four arrests to date. However, it told us that the local community had seen suspicious activity on that site for many weeks previously, but the Environment Agency had not received that information, suggesting a major gap in its ability to collect intelligence on waste crime.52 We asked what needs to be done to improve co-operation with the police, local authorities and other relevant organisations such as the DVLA to prevent this happening in the future. The Environment Agency told us it is revising how it processes and triages intelligence on illegal waste sites and agreed that it should be better connected with local government and other partners.53 Supporting farmers and businesses to comply