Influential peers have told ministers to “urgently commission an independent review” of their current approach to tackling waste crime.
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee said illegal refuse management was “critically under prioritised despite its significant environmental, economic and social costs”.
In a letter to environment secretary Emma Reynolds, the panel added: “We are deeply concerned about the demonstrable inadequacy of the current approach to tackling waste crime.”
The committee said it had heard credible evidence that the Environment Agency had failed to pursue repeated reports of serious breaches of the law in this area.
It added that the watchdog had on occasion not been able to “bring effective, timely and successful prosecutions against the perpetrators of serious and organised waste crime”.
“We note with concern that waste crime costs the English economy in the region of £1bn every year and highlight that each pound spent on fighting it can generate £5 in benefit,” added the letter.
The committee said the response to waste crime “must be subject to a root and branch review conducted independently of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency and HM Revenue and Customs.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “This government is taking action to clean up Britain and tackle waste gangs.
“Under our Plan for Change, we are tightening the net on gangs exploiting our waste system by helping councils to crush fly-tippers’ vans, funding more Environment Agency enforcement officers and imposing tougher sentences for those who transport waste illegally.
“We will carefully consider the recommendations of this report and will respond in due course.”
