The Government is committed to ensuring that noise is managed effectively to promote good health and minimise disruption to people’s quality of life. Councils are independent bodies accountable to their electorate rather than to Ministers or Government Departments and are responsible for deciding how they use their resources and discharge their responsibilities, including how Environmental Health Practitioners are supported to carry out their duties under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Section 89 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 imposes duties on local authorities to ensure that certain land is, so far as is practicable, kept clear of litter and refuse. The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (see attached) provides guidance on discharging these duties. It does not specify the distance from the highway for which it is the responsibility of the local authority to clear fly-tipping.

Local authorities are responsible for most trunk roads and other, more minor roads. National Highways is responsible for motorways and certain trunk roads. Landowners are responsible for the land that they own. We encourage local authorities to investigate all incidents of fly-tipping, including those on private land. The Environment Agency may investigate waste that has the potential to damage the environment, such as hazardous waste.

We recently published a Pride in Place Strategy in which we committed to bringing forward statutory enforcement guidance on littering and modernising the code of practice on Litter and Refuse that outlines the cleaning standards expected of local authorities.

Guidance to councils on the use of their fixed penalty powers for littering and related offences is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-on-litter-and-refuse.

The Government recently published a Pride in Place Strategy in which we committed to putting this guidance on a statutory footing and bringing forward equivalent enforcement guidance for fly-tipping. Fly-tipping is an offence under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The Environment Protection Act 1990 governs the responsibility for clearing highway litter and sweeping carriageways. National Highways is responsible for litter collection on motorways and some ‘A’ roads while the relevant Local Authority manages litter collection on the rest of the roads in England.

National Highways undertakes weekly safety inspections on the M60 and M67. National Highways’ most recent inspection of the M67 and M60 in Denton took place on 20 March 2025. The performance of contractors and their completion of maintenance activities are reviewed and monitored monthly by National Highways.

National Highways’ Performance Specification includes a Performance Indicator for litter. This metric monitors the cleanliness of the Strategic Road Network and is the percentage of the Strategic Road Network where litter is graded at A or B as defined in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Code of practice on Litter and Refuse. National Highways performance indicator score for 2023-24 is 59.2% of the Network is graded at A or B.

National Highways is monitored against its Performance Specification by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The ORR report annually to Parliament and the public on National Highways’ performance, including litter. If the ORR deem that National Highways is not complying with its statutory directions or complying with the requirements of the Road Investment Strategy, they may determine enforcement action to be appropriate.

There is no formal right of appeal against a fixed penalty notice. If an alleged offender does not accept their liability for the offence, there is no requirement on them to pay the fixed penalty. They may have to defend their case in court. As this is an informal process, there are no fixed grounds on which such a challenge may be made.

The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse states that “as a guideline, a single plastic sack of rubbish should usually be considered fly-tipping rather than litter.” Advisory guidance for local authorities is available on the use of littering enforcement powers which states that fixed penalty notices should only be used for the offence for which they were created. It also explains local authorities remain responsible for the entire enforcement process, even if they choose to use a private enforcement company. Defra is currently considering whether to make this enforcement guidance statutory.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the Environmental Protection Act 1990 continues to be a robust and effective legislative framework for managing and mitigating pollution from contaminated land. The department is always assessing the effectiveness of legislation to ensure it is fit for purpose.

Defra has recently commissioned the Environment Agency to produce a new State of Contaminated Land Report, which involves surveying Local Authorities progress on delivering their statutory responsibilities under Part2A of the Act, including the effectiveness of existing regulations and their remediation efforts.

The Noise Policy Statement for England aims to ensure that noise is managed effectively to promote good health and quality of life.

Defra is responsible for the domestic legislation covering statutory nuisance, although the environmental health departments in local authorities are the main enforcers of the statutory noise regime under the Environmental Protection Act, 1990.

No assessment has been made of the merits of introducing a minimum complaints threshold for investigating noises that could be a statutory nuisance.

There are currently no formal thresholds for noise in place. It is not possible to have a single objective noise-based measure which would apply to all situations without giving rise to unintended consequences, for example, restrictions to children’s playgrounds. This is because people react to noise in different ways, and effect levels are likely to vary according to different noise sources and time of day. Defra, therefore, considers decisions are best taken by local authorities using their knowledge of the specific circumstances.

National Highways is monitored against a litter performance indicator as part of the Road Investment Strategy (RIS2). This requires them to report on the percentage of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) where litter is graded at B or above under the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Litter Code of Practice. National Highways performance on this metric is reported to the Office for Road and Rail and published annually.

National Highways consider litter to be a very serious problem. It is harmful to the environment, damaging to their reputation, and upsets their customers. It also creates a risk to the substantial number of people who collect it, and uses resources that could instead be better used to improve the road network.