Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
Eighteenth Report - Government actions to combat waste crime
Published 19 Oct 2022
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Government actions to combat waste crime All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy does not set out a pathway to government’s ultimate goal of eliminating waste crime by 2043.18 Defra acknowledged that its reporting on progress implementing the strategy and towards this goal has been limited. The Agency told us how it is expanding its metrics beyond its current quarterly reporting on the number of high-risk illegal waste sites, to a suite of measures including the proportion 6 C&AG’s Report, Figure 21 7 Qq 3, 17, 56, 61, 64, 86 8 Qq 17, 88; C&AG’s Report, Figure 21 9 Qq 17–18 10 Qq 87–88 11 Qq 5, 7, 43, 49 12 Q 31 13 Q 3 14 Q 88 15 C&AG’s Report, figure 21 16 GWC0003 (ESA); GWC0006 (ADEPT); GWC0007 (SUEZ) 17 Qq 25–28, 88 18 C&AG’s Report, para 24, Figure 24 Government actions to combat waste crime 11 of waste that is being handled legitimately, the amount of waste prevented from illegal export, and the amount of hazardous waste discovered to be misdescribed to avoid tax.19 Defra is relying on an externally contracted evaluation of the strategy, due to complete in 2027, to identify further actions that it may need to take.20 Improving waste crime data
From: Public Accounts Committee, Eighteenth Report - Government actions to combat waste crime (HC 33), 19 October 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 December 2022 (deadline 19 December 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations on waste crime, listing most as "implemented" and giving target dates for others.
- On the Resources and Waste Strategy, the government agrees with the recommendation, while noting that "some delivery has been slower than originally planned"; it lists planned reforms including digital waste tracking and reform of the waste carriers, brokers and dealers' regime, both "planned for 2024".
- On landfill tax, the government agrees and says the Landfill Tax Review would consider the structure of the tax and "the impacts of any proposed changes to this on waste crime"; HMRC is to report on its approach to investigations, with a target date of December 2022.
- On sanctions, the government agrees and notes that the Sentencing Council is responsible for sentencing guidance and the courts make "independent decisions"; the department "intends to conduct new research" into enforcement of small scale fly-tipping, "anticipated to commence in early 2023".
- On the digital waste tracking contract, the government agrees; it is "anticipated that the contract will be let by the end of 2022" and the department "will write to inform the Committee" when this happens.