Environmental Permitting (Waste Controlling or Transporting) and Relevant Functions of Primary Authorities (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026
House of Lords · Grand Committee · 14 Jul 2026 · 13 speeches · Official Report
Considered in Grand Committee
Moved by
That the Grand Committee do consider the Environmental Permitting (Waste Controlling or Transporting) and Relevant Functions of Primary Authorities (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026. Relevant document: 3rd Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (s pecial attention drawn to the instrument )
My Lords, these regulations were laid before the House on 20 May 2026. I would like to acknowledge the work of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee in its review of this statutory instrument. The committee’s scrutiny is a vital part of our legislative process, ensuring that the policy intentions behind secondary legislation are clear and well-founded. Waste crime blights our communities-across our streets, fields and woodlands, criminals dump waste illegally. This an eyesore and causes damage to our environment. A light-touch registration system for those who transport and deal in waste has been exploited over the years by waste cowboys who dump waste and leave a huge clean-up bill. This system is not fit for purpose. Today we seek to reform it, introducing stricter checks and requirements, closing the loopholes that allow illegal operators into our waste system. We will bring those in England who control and transport waste within the scope of the 2016 environmental permitting regulations, while repealing the current carriers, brokers and dealers’ registration system. These regulations will introduce permits for those who control and transport waste, bringing the system in line with site-based waste activities. Permitting will mean that those who apply will need to undergo a stricter range of background checks, including criminal record checks, as well as demonstrating that they are technically competent to do the job. The new system of permitting will be managed...
My Lords, I briefly want to congratulate the Government and to say, well done. I think this was first put forward eight years ago, and it is finally happening. I appreciate it is not happening until next year, but we need to recognise the long amount of time it took to get here. I hope the results will be very rapid.
I thank the Minister for introducing these regulations, which we on these Benches welcome warmly. As the Minister is all too aware, I have raised the issue of waste crime in the House several times. I am genuinely pleased that these regulations are arriving as a crucial part of the of the long-term solutions we need to get control of our waste system and lock the criminals out. As the Minister said, this SI does not arrive in isolation; it follows the Waste Crime Action Plan and the instrument beginning the rollout of real-time digital waste tracking. Together with the exemptions reform promised later this year and next April’s instrument completing end-to-end digital tracking ahead of the deposit return scheme, we are finally beginning to see the basic architecture this sector has needed for years, so that we can know who is moving waste and where it is going, and make sure our systems are fit for purpose. This is the first time I have been able to say that I am really hopeful and see a future and a way forward. I really do welcome this. On the Environment Agency’s own estimates, around 18% of the waste in England passes through criminal hands at some point in its journey. This structural feature of the current system has been allowed to flourish for a number of years. As a result, we have a big historic legacy of waste sites that need to be cleared. I note that the Environment Agency’s watchlist for high-priority sites has grown to 139 as of 10 July. I welcome this...
My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing these regulations before the Committee. I can be commendably brief-or briefer than I normally am-because we give a very warm welcome to these excellent regulations. We on these Benches have repeatedly raised waste crime and called for tougher measures against the perpetrators. During consideration of the Crime and Policing Bill, the Government did not support our amendments to give police the powers to seize the vehicles of perpetrators of these crimes. I am sure that, if the Minister were to draw this to the attention of the excellent, caring and meticulous Lords Minister for Crime and Policing, he might wish to reflect on this again. Nevertheless, we welcome this step to better monitor the transportation of waste, taking into account which activities are low risk and which are high. These regulations are at least intended to ensure compliance and better identify criminal activity. I understand that the consultation demonstrated that a majority of respondents supported replacing the carriers, brokers and dealers’ registration system with this permitting regime under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. That said, can the Minister outline how the Government will ensure that businesses are made aware of the changes, as well as their ability to afford the costs involved, because there will be permit fees, registration fees, time costs, technical competence costs, tax, et cetera? These regulations give...
When I served until recently on the Food Standards Agency, I was the lead for the national food crime unit. The briefing we would get was that the people who were moving hundreds of tonnes of condemned food were in the business of transporting anything illegal. They would be moving condemned food one day, rubble the next, and stolen high-value vehicles the next. It is part of a big, organised crime syndicate. Quite frankly, we on these Benches believe that the Environment Agency is not capable of dealing with the massive £1 billion cross-county border fraud.
We all want to see a crackdown on waste crime. All I am asking of the Government is, will Defra and the Minister please consider carefully, with the extra money they are giving to the joint unit on waste crime, putting the National Crime Agency in the lead in this regard in tackling waste crime, keeping the Environment Agency working there as second-in-command? The National Crime Agency is the only one capable, in our opinion, of handling a £1 billion criminal enterprise. With these few little quibbles, I look forward to the Minister’s response.
My Lords, I thank noble Lords who have taken part in the discussion and all noble Lords for their strong support for the measures being brought forward. As noble Lords have said, this has been a long time coming, so it is really good to see that we have finally got this in front of us today. One thing that has come across really clearly, not just today but in a number of questions and parliamentary debates, is the huge problem of criminal waste activity that now blights so much of our countryside. There were a number of questions asked. I will do my best to cover them off, and if there is anything else I have missed, I will make sure I get back to noble Lords in writing. First, on evaluation and monitoring, we recognise that tackling waste crime requires sustained effort and a willingness to adapt as circumstances evolve. Delivery of the waste crime action plan will be accompanied by a process of continuous review and improvement. We will also regularly assess the effectiveness of the measures that are introduced. We will consider any new evidence as it emerges and, importantly, identify opportunities to go further where existing interventions are not achieving the desired outcomes. This is designed to ensure that our approach to tackling waste crime remains agile, responsive and focused on achieving lasting change. The Environment Agency is also developing improved indicators for 2026-27, including measures on larger-scale offending, response times and deterrence. The...
I take that to mean that, although the National Crime Agency will not be put into the lead, it will have an enhanced role. Is that what the Minister said?
Defra and the Environment Agency will be the lead, but we will work absolutely hand in glove with those other agencies to make sure that they effectively tackle the problem we have. As I say, we will monitor anyway so, if we find that it needs changing in any way to strengthen that, we will be able to do that once we have continued to review and monitor. We are bringing all these changes in because we want to make a difference and we want to stop what has been happening. I have mentioned to the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, that I would be very happy to meet her to discuss her Private Member’s Bill, and I hope we can do that in the not-too-distant future. I appreciate the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, coming in to offer her support for this SI. As she said, this has taken a long time, and I am sure she did quite a bit of work on it, so it is important to see that work started by one Government has been completed by another. With that, I commend the regulations to the Committee.
Motion agreed.