Baroness Sheehan writes to the Environment Agency over concerns it did not reference significant illegal waste sites when giving evidence to the recent waste crime inquiry.
The Environment Agency called Baroness Sheehan’s letter ‘inaccurate’ and said they had responded ‘comprehensively’ to the inquiry.
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee inquiry into waste crime found it was difficult to conclude that ‘incompetence’ at the Environment Agency has not been a factor in failures to prevent and effectively prosecute waste crime.
As part of the regulator’s evidence to the inquiry it submitted the locations of several illegal waste sites in England.
Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, has now expressed concerns that several highly environmentally damaging waste crime sites were not highlighted during the Environment Agency’s evidence.
These include the high-profile 150m high waste dump in Kidlington, as well as illegal waste sites in Wigan and Wadborough.
Baroness Sheehan said: “Since the Environment Agency gave evidence to our inquiry into serious and organised waste crime, we have become increasingly alarmed by the reporting of new waste crime sites in the media, which, we now know, the Environment Agency knew about but failed to reference in evidence provided to us.”
“We are disappointed that these sites were not deemed necessary to bring to the committee’s attention.”
Baroness Sheehan said she has written to the Chair and Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Alan Lovell and Philip Duffy, to seek clarification on concerns the Committee has regarding the regulator’s awareness of and response to these sites.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “These claims are inaccurate. We have engaged with Baroness Sheehan’s inquiry in good faith and have responded comprehensively to the questions posed to us. We will continue to work closely with the Committee on their further questions.”
The Environment Agency said it was asked to provide the number of illegal dumps the size of Hoads Wood or larger and the sites covered in the media did not meet this criteria.
The regulator told the committee it was aware of six other illegal waste sites estimated to be as large as or larger than the Hoads Wood dump.
As part of the inquiry, the Lords 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.
Witnesses expressed concerns regarding the effectiveness of the Environment Agency’s practices, the amount of funding available for it to tackle waste crime, and how it uses the funding available to it.
The Lords were also critical of the police, saying they were ‘unimpressed’ with the lack of interest they showed in tackling waste crime.
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