Fly-tipping council league table statistics revealed

Defra has drawn up league tables ranking local authorities in England on their approach to fly-tipping enforcement.

The results are based on the 2021-22 financial year, which saw local authorities deal with 1.09m fly-tipping incidents, a decrease of 4% from the 1.14m cases reported in 2020-21.

Local authorities carried out 507,000 enforcement actions in 2021-22, an increase of 52,000 actions (11%) from 455,000 in 2020-21. There were 91,000 fixed penalty notices issued in 2021-22 – up 58% on the previous year (57,000).

See also: What to do if you’re a victim of… fly-tipping

Court fines issued for fly-tipping nearly tripled year on year to 1,798 in 2021-22 and the value of total fines more than doubled from £330,000 in 2020-21 to £840,000.

The data covers trends in the number of fly-tipping incidents, with a breakdown by land type, waste type and size. It also covers enforcement and prosecution actions undertaken for fly-tipping incidents.

But it excludes the majority of private-land incidents, such as those carried out on farms, and large-scale incidents dealt with by the Environment Agency.

Defra cautioned comparisons between local authorities should be made with care, as the data can be influenced by population density, housing stock, demographics and commuter routes. 

The Chartered Institute of Wastes Management said it was encouraged by reductions in fly-tipping incidents, but overall levels remain high.

It would like to see faster progress being made on the development and rollout of digital waste tracking.