Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Accepted
Stakeholders emphasised the need to ensure timely, effective delivery and implementation of the government’s initiatives.
Recommendation
Stakeholders emphasised the need to ensure timely, effective delivery and implementation of the government’s initiatives. The Environmental Services Association wrote that tighter requirements to prevent criminals entering the sector “must be developed and pushed through with urgency”, while ADEPT also supports improving data to help expose rogue operators.29 Large waste company SUEZ wrote that new legislation needs to be supported by the resources to implement it effectively, including sufficient monitoring and enforcement.30 NFU evidence made clear that improving user experience and willingness to report waste crime requires fundamental change, telling us that a single reporting mechanism is needed to reduce frustration and confusion, as is feedback following a report.31 The Agency has said publicly that its new approach to tackling waste crime is “a lot more high-tech”, citing use of drones and heat-sensitive 19 Qq 5–6 20 Qq 2, 5–6, 29 21 C&AG’s Report, para 1.2 22 Q 2 23 Qq 3, 81; C&AG’s Report, para 1.2 24 Qq 48–49 25 Qq 5–6; C&AG’s Report, paras 3.3 and 3.4 26 Qq 5, 43, 49 27 Q 3 28 Q 2 29 GWC0003 (ESA); GWC0006 (ADEPT) 30 GWC0007 (SUEZ) 31 GWC0004 (NFU England and Wales) 12 Government actions to combat waste crime cameras.32 Equivalent bodies in other UK nations have explored using satellite data to improve data on waste crime: both the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Wales have trialled the use of satellites to discover waste crime.33 Delivering an IT project critical to the waste strategy
Government Response Summary
Defra and the agency are working together to improve existing data sets, commissioning new surveys and research if necessary, and will explore a full range of solutions to data weaknesses including satellite technology.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2a. PAC recommendation: Defra [and the agency] needs to explore the full range of potential solutions to data weaknesses, including for example satellite technology, and ensure successful delivery of existing initiatives to improve data; where these initiatives rely on public reporting there should be appropriate capacity to follow up reported incidents. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 2.2 The department and the agency are working together to improve existing data sets to better capture the extent of crime and fraud, commissioning new surveys and research if necessary. 2.3 The department made a commitment in the Resources and Waste Strategy (RWS) to publish an evaluation plan to evaluate policies introduced through the RWS, including waste crime, and has appointed a consortium led by Ipsos to take this forward. The first element of this, to be published imminently, reports on progress in the RWS evaluation programme. The department is also committed to publishing a framework of indicators annually to track progress towards objectives set out in the strategy. This includes indicators for waste crime – for example indicators on illegal waste sites, fly-tipping, littering. 2.4 Within the evaluation plan for the RWS, a theory of change has been developed for the outcome ‘reducing waste crime’ to identify how to measure the department's impact. This will then be used to identify corresponding indicators needed to evaluate our progress on reducing waste crime. Existing data and metrics will be reviewed and mapped against the evaluation indicators and if there are any indicators where data is unavailable, a monitoring plan will be developed outlining the method and frequency of data collection and analysis. It is expected these gaps will be filled through surveys, data modelling, alternative data sets or proxies, although a full range of potential solutions will be explored.