‘The new narcotics’

Independent waste crime review needed following multiple failures, says Lords Committee

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Published: October 28, 2025
This Article was written by: Katie Hill - My Green Pod
environment, policy, politics, pollution, waste

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A House of Lords committee is calling on the government to get tough on serious and organised waste crime.

It has highlighted multiple failures by the Environment Agency, the ineffectiveness of its Joint Unit for Waste Crime and a lack of interest shown by the police in tackling what has been described as ‘the new narcotics’, and is now calling for the establishment of a root and branch review.

‘Multiple failings’

In a letter sent today (28 October) to Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the cross-party Environment and Climate Change Committee raised concerns that, despite significant environmental, social and economic costs in the region of £1 billion every year, waste crime is being drastically under-prioritised.

The letter follows a short inquiry which heard from a range of witnesses including community groups, the Environment Agency, a government minister and officials, police and crime commissioners and waste management specialists.

‘During our inquiry we heard that over 38 million tonnes of waste (enough to fill Wembley Stadium 35 times) is being illegally dumped each year mainly by established organised crime groups involve in drugs, firearms, money laundering and modern slavery.

‘Despite the scale and seriousness of the crimes, raised by the members of the public in many cases, we have found multiple failings by the Environment Agency and other agencies from slow responses to repeated public reports (as in the case of Hoad’s Wood, Kent) through to a woeful lack of successful convictions.

‘The government and other agencies must act now on our recommendations, including starting an independent review. There is no time to waste.’

BARONESS SHEEHAN
Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee

Committee recommendations

While it welcomes and supports the government’s commitment to transitioning to a circular economy to help eliminate waste crime, the committee is calling for further action from the government.

It would like the government to establish a single telephone number and online reporting tool for the public to report waste crime.

The committee would also like the Joint Unit for Waste Crime to improve collaboration between bodies with responsibility for waste crime at the local level (especially policing and local government), particularly in respect of the handling of reports and sharing of intelligence.

It has suggested the Treasury should review rules on managing public money preventing the Environment Agency to divert resources from its regulatory work to crime enforcement and maintain additional funding provided to the Environment Agency in 2025/26.

The Environment Agency is being called on to implement its proposed waste crime levy and the committee would like the government to fully assess the risks that landfill tax reform will increase other forms of waste crime and lead to the abandonment of landfill sites.

The committee wants the government to ensure phase 1 of the implementation of mandatory digital waste tracking is delivered on time and provide funding to enable the expansion of digital waste tracking to waste carriers from 2027.

Finally, to would like the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to develop interim targets with a comprehensive set of metrics to measure progress, which should be published quarterly.