The Environment Agency has missed its target to reduce the number of high-risk illegal waste sites currently in operation in England, despite an increase in funding for the year.
Details of the missed goal were detailed in the Agency’s 2018-2019 annual report, published yesterday (22 July). The report confirmed that of its aim to reduce the number of high-risk illegal waste sites from 259 to 196, the Agency succeeding in only reducing this number to 250.
Environment Agency officers inspect a consignment of waste
“Although this is not as big a reduction as we were aiming for, it is an improvement on performance compared to 2017/18,” the Agency commented.
Funding
This comes in spite an increase in funding for anti-waste crime activities for the year. The Agency claimed that it underspent on its budget for tackling waste crime due to delays in recruitment.
In the report, the Agency notes that it has secured an additional £30 million for tackling waste crime over the 2018-22 budget period (see letsrecycle.com story) – but warned that it may still face budgetary issues in future years.
“There is a risk that we may struggle to use the additional funding effectively as delays in recruitment mean that we underspent the allocation for 2018-19″
“There is a risk that we may struggle to use the additional funding effectively as delays in recruitment mean that we underspent the allocation for 2018-19,” the Agency claimed.
“While these increases in funding mean our enforcement has been better funded in 2018-19, pressures to reduce our reliance on grant in aid mean that there is also an overall risk that there may be cuts in baseline funding which will reduce our ability to respond to the problems of illegal waste activity in future years.”
No-deal Brexit
The Agency also claimed that a no-deal Brexit could create further incentive for criminals to illegally dispose of waste that would otherwise be exported, as well as preparations for supporting the UK’s exit from the EU reducing the amount of resource that the Agency can allocate to tackling waste crime.
The Agency missed its target for the closure of ‘high-risk’ illegal waste sites
The report also details that the number of major pollution incidents from illegal waste sites increased from 46 to 69 during the year.
Despite these setbacks, the Agency noted that it successfully prosecuted 77 waste crime cases in 2018/19, with a resulting eight prison sentences and fines in the region of £450,000.
The Agency concluded: “In the past year we reduced the number of high-risk illegal waste sites and have set ourselves challenging targets to continue to do so, in response to increased resources to address this problem.
“The awarding of further funding to tackle waste crime shows the government’s confidence in this approach.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
