Recommendation 9

The 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy acknowledged there were serious gaps in the national data on waste.21 When we asked how action to combat waste crime could be prioritised without good quality data, Defra told us “There is quite a lot more that we want to do” to improve data on waste crime.22 The Agency said “we think that only about 25% of all waste crime” is reported, and described the level of illegal waste exports as a “known unknown”.23 Defra and the Agency accept that the public cannot rely on information about who are legitimate waste operators as opposed to rogue dealers or “fly-by-night companies”, due to weaknesses in the registration system.24 Data limitations mean that Defra and the Agency are not yet able to comprehensively track their progress against the government’s goal to eradicate waste crime.25