Written question asked by Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative) on Wednesday, 15 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 February 2006. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Friday, 3 March 2006 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Fly-tipping

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many incidents of fly-tipping were reported in (a) Uxbridge constituency and (b) the London borough of Hillingdon in each year since 1997; how many prosecutions were made as a result; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: Defra has worked with the Environment Agency to establish Flycapture, the national database of fly-tipping, which has been operational since April 2004. No national data were previously available on illegal waste disposal or fly-tipping.Flycapture collects data at local authority level only. It is important to note that the data are probably an underestimate and will increase as authorities get better at collecting and reporting the data.The London borough of Hillingdon reported 2,128 incidents of fly-tipping between April 2004 and March 2005 (an average of 177 per month) and 1,799 between April 2005 and December 2005 (average 200 per month). During the same time periods the Environment Agency investigated 11 and 4 incidents respectively in Hillingdon.The data submitted for prosecutions are incomplete but show that the London borough of Hillingdon took one prosecution in 2004–05 and six to date in 2005–06. The Environment Agency took two prosecutions in both 2004–05 and so far in 2005–06.

Secondary information