As of last week, the Environment Agency have now obtained powers which allow them to tackle waste crime. This will allow the EA to lock illegal waste sites and force any illegal operators to clean up all waste. 

Going forward as part of the changes, EA employees will all wear body cameras following a “growing number of abusive incidents during site inspections”.

The changes were initially announced in January 2018 but were subject to parliamentary approval. This was in conjunction with a consultation by Defra on further action to crack-down on illegal sites. This consultation expired on Monday last week (March 26 2018).

The public consultation in which 90% of respondents, said Defra, were in favour of allowing regulators to take physical steps to prevent operators from accepting more illegally dumped waste.

The new powers will allow the EA to lock the gates of illegal sites to prevent the build-up of waste, and the EA can now force operators to clear all the waste at a problem site, not just the illegal waste.