The House Article | Time to legislate to stop illegal waste dumping at source

4 min read16 min

To put the scale of the problem into context over 38 million tonnes of waste, enough to fill Wembley Stadium 35 times, is believed to be illegally managed at some point in the waste management chain each year. 

With organised crime groups believed to commit 35% of waste crime, it is no wonder that it has been described as the ‘new narcotics.’ The cycle of organised crime impacting the circular economy simply must stop at source. That is why I am calling on members of both Houses to back my Corporate Waste Responsibility Bill. 

In October 2025, the cross-party House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, which I Chair, sent a letter to Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with our findings and recommendations following a short inquiry on the topic.

We called on the Government to get tough on serious and organised waste crime after highlighting multiple failures by the Environment Agency, the ineffectiveness of its Joint Unit for Waste Crime and a lack of interest shown by the police to act on local residents reports of illegal activity.

When the Committee started its inquiry, waste crime was a regional news story after one notable large scale site was uncovered in Hoads Wood, Kent. However, after pressing the Environment Agency for details of other sites it soon became a national and international story with waste dumps in Oxfordshire, Wigan, Northwich, Lancashire and Cornwall gaining media attention. There are now reported to be around 30 super sites (containing more than 20,000 tonnes of rubbish) and between 500 and 700 smaller sites across the country.

On visits to the sites in Oxfordshire, Wigan and Kent with Channel 4 News and the BBC I got to see, and smell, the full scale of the problem and the impact it is having on local residents, some of whom have had to relocate. It was particularly concerning that these sites aren’t full of waste from individual fly tippers but industrial scale operations moving processed household waste and construction materials.

Waste crime has become profitable due to opportunities to avoid the costs incurred by legitimate businesses, often including landfill tax, with a low probability of detection or punishment, and low penalties. The Committee heard that illegally disposing a single articulated lorry’s load of waste can avoid £2,500 of costs. With anyone, and literally their dog, being able to register for a license, no mandatory tracking on vehicles and very low prosecution rates it’s a low risk, high reward business for criminals.

Eight months on from the Committee’s initial letter waste crime continues to be a hot topic, including the by-election in Makerfield. Over that time Committee members have worked tirelessly to keep up the political pressure through oral questions, debates and follow up evidence sessions with Ministers and the Environment Agency.

This has had some impact. Earlier this year, the Government launched its Waste Crime Action Plan which sets out how it intends to tackle waste crime through prevention, enforcement and accelerating the clean-up effort. This was followed during the summer with the Prime Minister tougher measures against those committing waste crime offences.  There has also been secondary legislation introduced to mandate digital waste tracking, overhaul the outdated Carriers, Brokers and Dealers (CBD) registration scheme and increasing fines local authorities can issue for fly-tipping and littering.

Whilst welcome, these measures don’t go far enough to tackle the source of the problem of corporate waste companies allowing their waste to end up in illegal sites across the country.  

That is why I have introduced the Corporate Waste Responsibility Bill in the House of Lords. If passed, it will require large companies to appoint a named director responsible for compliance with statutory waste duty of care obligations. It will also ensure companies are financially responsible for the clean-up and clearance of waste they have generated or controlled, where that waste is mismanaged and the duty of care has not been discharged.

The second reading of my bill will be held in the House of Lords this Autumn and I am hoping to get the support from members of both Houses to progress it. Without ongoing parliamentary scrutiny and changes being made through legislation this egregious crime will continue to blight our communities and have a devastating impact on the environment.