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The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael): We would certainly examine the content of any late submissions.

Mr. Dhanda: I appreciate that, and I thank my right hon. Friend.

We need to ask why fly-tipping remains such a serious problem, given the legislative framework that I outlined. The reasons can be summed up in two words: "communication" and "enforcement". Although the powers are in place, too often agencies do not work together. That is certainly true of Gloucester. Too often, they do not work together to effect what they have the power to enforce. Sometimes they do not have enough incentive to do that. The manifold communication problems can be greatest locally.

The county council is responsible for waste disposal, yet the district councils are responsible for its collection. An inherent complication therefore requires effective communication to ensure smooth running of the service. The Environment Agency is also involved locally. Several examples of difficulties have arisen. My right hon. Friend explained the provisions of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 in a guidance note dated 31 March 2004, but the information does not appear to have filtered through to all the relevant local agencies. That is understandable, because it is complex.

At a recent meeting with staff from my office, an environmental officer from a neighbouring district council complained that the local authority was obliged to pass on to central Government receipts for on-the-spot fines and that local authorities therefore had no incentive to collect the money. I know that that is not the case because, in a written answer to me dated 30 April, my right hon. Friend stated that section 119 of the Local Government Act 2003 allows local authorities to retain receipts for litter fixed penalty notices. That provision came into force on 18 November last year but the officer to whom my assistant spoke was unaware of that. It is therefore important that we convey that message loud and clear throughout the country.

One district council's environmental officer was not permitted to attend an Environmental Agency training day on fly-tipping solely because she is not an employee of the agency. I would welcome my right hon. Friend's comments on that. I have spoken to Environment Agency employees, who also find that a remarkable state of affairs. It is easy to resolve: the agency should permit relevant officers from local authorities to have access to its training. That is common sense.
 
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In addition to the communication problems, there is little incentive to enforce the law and prosecute those guilty of fly-tipping because often it is not cost-effective to do so. For example, I am advised that it could cost up to £2,000 to bring an offender to court, but that would rarely be worth while if the eventual fine were only £50. Surely the penalties must be greater to make the costs worth bearing.

I have described some of the main difficulties and their causes. I would now like to suggest ways of solving some of the problems. I can assure my right hon. Friend that any help that he can offer will be strongly welcomed by Gloucester city council. Under the leadership of the Labour council leader, Mary Smith, the city council is getting on top of the problem of fly-tipping, and it is keen to get tough. In its manifesto for the forthcoming local elections, Labour in Gloucester pledges to enforce on-the-spot fines for those who drop litter in the city centre. The council will continue the bulky collection service recently introduced in local neighbourhoods and increase the use of partnership clean-ups in conjunction with local communities. I, along with many other MPs, know that those clean-ups are very useful. I recall recently being up to my knees in rubbish with Mary on the Matson estate.

Gloucester city council's tough approach to fly-tipping is part of a wider strategy to deal with related issues such as abandoned cars. Operation Dodger, Gloucester's joint initiative involving the police, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the city council, has been successful in removing more than 2,000 abandoned vehicles from the city's streets in just two years. Regular street cleaning, graffiti removal, dealing with fly-posting, and the introduction of community support officers have also contributed greatly to the appearance of the city centre, but I would be the first to accept that there is a long way to go. I know that the city council recognises that the measures that have been taken are not enough, and that combating fly-tipping must be one of our priorities, because of some of the recent problems that we have had.

I would appreciate my right hon. Friend's comments on how we can improve communication and enforcement, to ensure that the hard work of the Labour Government and Labour-led Gloucester city council brings results at local level. The right powers are in place. What steps can my right hon. Friend take to improve communication between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency and local authorities to ensure that they are properly and effectively enforced?

Will my right hon. Friend consider extending the duty of care regulations imposed under section 34(5) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to occupiers of domestic property with respect to household waste produced on the property? It is getting to the stage where prosecution and imprisonment are necessary to deal with those who spoil our communities in this way. If that measure applies to other forms of waste, perhaps it is time that it applied to household waste as well.

The tough new antisocial behaviour laws are good news in the battle against fly-tipping, but the toughest part is making sure that there is strong enforcement. The
 
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people of Gloucester have put up with the nuisance of fly-tipping for far too long. I want us to go beyond on-the-spot fines and to start prosecuting those responsible for fly-tipping household waste in the same way as we prosecute those responsible for tipping toxic waste. After all, it is all poisonous to those of us who have to put up with it.

8.13 pm

Mr. David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op) rose—

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): Order. Before I can call the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) in a half-hour Adjournment debate, I need his assurance that he has the permission of the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mr. Dhanda) and of the Minister to speak.

Mr. Drew: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I shall use just a couple of minutes to reinforce the comments of my hon. Friend, and I am grateful to him and to the Minister for giving me this space to say a few words.

Without in any way casting aspersions on the good people of Gloucester, I would like to point out that the problems of fly-tipping do not necessarily remain within the boundaries of the city. Fortuitously, one of my constituents, Mrs. Liz Hall, a resident of Harescombe, called a public meeting on 20 April—at which there were representatives from Harescombe, Haresfield, Brookthorpe, Edge and Painswick—to discuss the very problem to which my hon. Friend has alluded. They discussed the measures that are already in force. Subsequently, I wrote to them about the consultation, and I hope that they will send their comments, either via me or directly to the Minister. Notice was taken of what the Flycapture campaign, which the Government have already launched, was capable of achieving—the use of antisocial behaviour orders and so on—but the main call was for greater co-ordination. Clearly, there was some difference of emphasis between the two authorities, Gloucester city and Stroud district councils, about what measures were being used. From my experience of the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003, I know that greater co-ordination and consistency of action is at the heart of what I hope the Government will do as a result of the consultation.

In addition to taking careful note of the results of the consultation, will the Minister say how he envisages taking forward that co-ordinating role to include not just different district authorities but, in the case of Gloucestershire, the disposal authority, which is the county council? We must bear down on this serious problem, to give notice to my constituents that enforcement can be much more effective and to ensure that communication is more effective.

8.16 pm

The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Mr. Dhanda) on securing this debate, and congratulate him and my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) on packing an awful lot into a short period. This is an important issue, and I am pleased that it has been highlighted in the House tonight.
 
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Issues such as fly-tipping, litter, graffiti and fly-posting matter to Members of Parliament and councillors because we know that they matter to our constituents. They are part of a continuum that is important in any local area. We know that people want to live in places that are clean, green and safe, and the three elements are linked. I am glad that some of the points that I want to make in response to the debate will be strongly supported by colleagues in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Office, who share the view that that continuum must be tackled comprehensively by central and local government.

I was pleased to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester talk about local initiatives in Gloucester. In my experience, the city and the council have always been at the forefront of crime reduction and of trying to tackle the problems that attend any city centre. The Local Government Association shares the Government's view of the importance of these issues.

Illegal disposal of waste, or fly-tipping, whether of industrial or casual domestic material, is an antisocial activity that pollutes the environment and reduces the amenity value of local areas. The Environment Agency estimates that fly-tipping costs authorities and landowners between £100 million and £150 million a year to clean up, in addition to the damage to local communities, on which it is more difficult to put a cost. The Environment Agency dealt with 5,000 incidents in 2002, which was nearly a 20 per cent. increase on the previous year. The Government agree fully that there is a need for further action, and we are taking action on a number of fronts.

My hon. Friend rightly referred to measures to tackle fly-tipping in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, which were commenced on 31 March 2004. They include: the power for local authorities to investigate incidents in more detail; the power for local authorities to stop, search and seize vehicles suspected of being used for fly-tipping; and the power for the Secretary of State to issue statutory directions to formalise the division of responsibilities between the Environment Agency and local authorities. That introduces the sort of coherence to which both my hon. Friends referred in their contributions.

My hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester mentioned a local authority official who was unaware of a change under section 119 of the Local Government Act 2003 that allows local authorities to keep receipts from litter fixed penalty notices. I find that surprising, because all these issues are dealt with in information and guidance packs that we have sent to all local authority chief executives in England. It has been possible to download the pack from the DEFRA website since November 2003. Perhaps it should not be surprising, however. A lot of changes are taking place, and it is difficult for all local authority officers to keep abreast of everything. Given what my hon. Friend has said, I shall write to chief executives again stressing that the information is available and emphasising the need for it to be disseminated at all levels in local authorities—not just to officials dealing with these issues directly, but to district offices or information outlets where people may need the information in order to address problems raised by people approaching local authorities or, perhaps, citizens advice bureaux.
 
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I have also sent all Members an information pack produced specifically for MPs by ENCAMS—Environmental Campaigns—which outlines a series of local environmental quality issues and ways in which they can be tackled locally, either through local authorities or by means of voluntary effort. Perhaps we could all share the task of disseminating information and encouraging people to take advantage of the available procedures, whether statutory or voluntary.

Information was also issued to many local authorities by ENCAMS through its people and places network, to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management through its electronic mailing network, and by the Improvement and Development Agency's network. It has been possible to download the information through the DEFRA website since 31 March 2004, and the IDeA Knowledge website is also available. We launched a joint initiative to make the information available, but obviously it is useful only if people know where to find the information. I hope that my hon. Friends and others will draw this to the attention of their local authorities.

My hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester asked whether we would extend the duty of care regulations made under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to occupiers of domestic property with respect to household waste. The section imposes a duty of care on businesses to secure a waste transfer note whenever waste is transferred, which must be kept for two years and can be inspected by the agency and local authorities when they investigate fly-tipping incidents.

Section 34 does not currently apply to householders, but it is a criminal offence, under section 33 of the 1990 Act, for a householder to dispose of household waste outside the curtilage of his or her property other than in accordance with a waste management licence. A review of section 34, setting out the framework of the current duty of care regime, began in March this year. Its terms of reference are being finalised, and I shall ensure that it considers the issue of householders and household waste.

The Government are keen to help local authorities and the Environment Agency to work together to deal with the problem of illegally dumped waste. The agency and the Local Government Association have agreed to a voluntary memorandum of understanding called the fly-tipping protocol, which is currently being updated and reviewed. I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud agrees that involving those organisations in designing the way in which they will work is a good idea. The protocol focuses on the division of responsibilities for dealing with fly-tipped waste, and encourages the development of local agreements. We acknowledge that in the past difficulties have been posed by the boundary line and who should be responsible for what. Both the agency and local authorities are now making a genuine effort to work together and ensure that the approach is as seamless as possible.

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