Press Release - Environment Agency: Protecting the Public from
Waste
18 December 2002
The Environment Agency has made much progress since its creation
in 1996 in providing more consistent and professional regulation of
the waste industry in England and Wales and in improving standards
in the industry, according to a report today from the National
Audit Office. The Agency could, however, provide more effective and
efficient regulation by better targeting of its inspections of
licensed waste sites, and making greater use of its enforcement
powers to deal with persistent offenders.
According to the report to Parliament by head of the NAO Sir
John Bourn, the Agency could make better use of its resources by
carrying out fewer but more comprehensive and in-depth inspections
of waste operators and improving its detection of illegal waste
activities, such as fly tipping. In 2001-02, the Agency planned to
visit licensed sites 15 times on average. There is no evidence that
this high frequency of inspections, covering all licensed sites, is
needed to deliver effective regulation. Most reports of pollution
from licensed waste sites relate to only a small proportion of
sites: in 2000-01, such reports were recorded at only 12 per cent
of licensed waste sites and nine sites accounted for 35 per cent of
all reports of major or significant incidents that year.
The report points out that the Environment Agency has become
increasingly active in prosecuting waste offences but needs to use
its enforcement powers more effectively. In 2001-02 the Agency
secured convictions in 466 cases (nearly double the number in
1996-97). Court fines totalled £1.4 million and the average fine
increased from £1,132 per case in 1996-97 to over £3,000 in
2001-02. The Agency is particularly concerned, however, that the
current level of fines can be small compared with the profits that
operators can make from the illegal disposal of waste.
The NAO found that the Agency does not always escalate the
enforcement action it can take where a licensed waste operator is
guilty of multiple, but individually minor, breaches of its
licence. Today’s report concludes that the Agency needs to deal
more effectively with operators that persistently fail to comply
with their licences. And it recommends that the Agency should say
more clearly how it will respond to licence breaches; and take
prompt enforcement action when a compliance failure is detected,
especially where there is repeated disregard of the requirements of
good waste management.
The NAO’s other findings include the following.
- The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
recognises that controls over waste activities exempt from the
requirement to be licensed (such as the spreading of waste on land
and the remediation of contaminated land) need to be improved, but
has taken too long to complete a review of these controls. The
Agency has limited funds earmarked specifically for inspecting
exempt sites and carried out fewer than 2,238 such inspections in
2001-02.
- The Agency has improved standards of waste licensing but needs
to improve further on the time it takes to deal with licence
applications. In 2001-02 only one fifth of new licences were issued
within four months of application and one in seven took more than a
year. Some delays are outside the Agency’s control, but the Agency
is also seeking to simplify the application process.
- Taxpayers may end up paying for the management of abandoned
waste sites because operators’ financial provisions are unavailable
or insufficient. The Department is working closely with the Agency,
the Department for Trade and Industry and the industry to ensure
that the ‘polluter pays’.
- Evidence pointing towards an increase in fly tipping following
the introduction of the Landfill Tax in 1996 is anecdotal and the
Agency’s records do not show a clear trend. However, the Agency
estimates that each year there are around 50,000 fly tipping
incidents, costing local authorities some £50 million to £150
million to deal with.
Recommendations by the NAO include the Agency’s placing
increased reliance on operators’ own management systems and
controls where they are of a suitable standard; increasing
incentives for companies to comply with their licences and waste
legislation; improving the waste licensing system, for example, by
using standard licences for low risk sites, and agreeing a system
for monitoring fly-tipping nationally in conjunction with local
authorities which is both economic and reliable.
Sir John Bourn said today:
"I welcome the progress made by the Environment Agency
in creating a single organisation which regulates waste
consistently and professionally. The Agency carries out a large
number of inspections of waste sites however, and needs to
concentrate more effectively on areas of real risk. The Agency
could be more efficient and effective by better targeting its
efforts on more comprehensive and in-depth inspections, even if
this means doing fewer inspections in total. Rogue operators must
also be left in no doubt that enforcement action against them will
be swift."
Notes for Editors
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website at http://www.nao.org.uk/ Hard copies can
be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office employing some 750 staff. He and
the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 78/02
All enquiries to NAO Press Office:
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7798 7400