Fly-tipping
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Environment Agency’s budget is for tackling illegal waste activity in the financial year 2025-26.
Answered by Mary Creagh
This financial year, the Government committed £12 million to the Environment Agency (EA) to fight waste crime. This is an additional £2 million to the £10 million it received in previous years. The funding will continue to afford resource of approximately 240 full-time equivalent across the EA to target waste crime; it is spent on specialised staff, such as enforcement officers, intelligence officers, financial investigators, and disclosure officers.
The EA also received £3 million for 2025/26 to enforce new duties introduced this year including the new Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility requirements. This helps to fund resources towards operational staff to tackle serious and significant offending.
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