Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
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)
Defra told us that an in-house digital delivery team is working on a prototype digital waste tracking system and it has engaged a panel of 1,600 users to help with testing.43 This follows £1.4 million of funding awarded to tech companies in two rounds of the GovTech Catalyst competition, resulting in development of two earlier prototypes.44 In a follow- up letter after the evidence session, Defra said it is currently assessing responses to an exercise to procure an IT partner to work with the in-house team to build the service.45 32 Sir James Bevan speech, Crackdown on waste crime: Time to stop trashing our future, 12 April 2022; Environment Agency blog, Flying high! Using drones to collect evidence of illegal waste sites – Creating a better place (blog.gov.uk) , October 2021 33 Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Smarter regulation of waste: progress to date, February 2020; Natural Resources Wales, Socially distant but always on duty – using technology to catch waste criminals, May 2020 34 Q 8; Defra, Scottish Government, Welsh Government, Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Consultation on the introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking, January 2022 35 C&AG’s Report, Figure 21 36 Defra, Scottish Government, Welsh Government, Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Consultation on the introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking, January 2022 37 Q 6; C&AG’s Report, paras 3.3 and 3.4 38 Qq 43, 83 39 Q 8 40 GWC0004 (NFU England and Wales); GWC0003 (ESA); GWC0006 (ADEPT); GWC0007 (Suez) 41 GWC0007 (Suez) 42 Q 8 43 Qq 7, 12–13; Letter from Defra’s Permanent Secretary to PAC Chair, sent 29 June 2022 44 Smart tracking of waste across the UK: GovTech Catalyst competition winners announced, February 2019; £1 million boost for UK smart waste tracking, October 2019 45 Letter from Defra’s Permanent Secretary to PAC Chair, sent 29 June 2022 Government actions to combat waste crime 13 Budg
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.