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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 the Environment Agency, which will be responsible for managing applications and ensuring compliance. The Environment Agency will be able to suspend and ultimately revoke permits where conditions are breached. It will be able to prosecute, leading to fines or up to five years’ imprisonment. The fees introduced for permits will mean that the Environment Agency will be effectively resourced for compliance work.
These regulations will make it easier for the public to trust the people they hand their waste to. Alongside permits being able to be checked online, we are requiring that waste controllers and transporters include their permit number on advertising. Whether this is a Facebook ad or a branded van, the public will be able to spot and check on the operators they work with.
This reform is one of a number outlined in the Government’s Waste Crime Action Plan, published in March, which together strengthen the regulatory framework and the Environment Agency’s ability to prevent, detect and act against waste crime. We have taken further legislative action by replacing outdated paper-based methods for monitoring waste movements with digital waste tracking. We will also be tightening the waste permit exemptions system by removing three exemptions and tightening the conditions of seven others that have long been abused by waste criminals.
Alongside the reforms, it is important that we provide those responsible for tackling waste crime with the tools needed to effectively stamp it out. We have committed an additional £45 million for the Environment Agency to spend on waste crime enforcement over the next three financial years to support this. This funding will mean that there are more boots on the ground to expand its enforcement activity and ensure waste criminals face the consequences.
I want to acknowledge the strength of support from the industry and its patience over the years as it has been developed. These regulations represent a significant change for the waste system and will help level the playing field for operators, as well as protecting our communities and the environment from waste criminals.
Alongside the reforms to the carriers, brokers and dealers’ system, the regulations also bring the Environment Act 2021 into the scope of primary authority by adding it to Schedule 3 to the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanction Act. Primary authority is a means for businesses to receive assured and tailored advice on meeting regulations such as environmental health, trading standards and fire safety through a single point of contact. This amendment is particularly necessary to enable primary authorities to play a role in effectively supporting retailers in undertaking their obligations as required in the deposit return scheme. I beg to move.
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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.
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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 transparency but, again, this legacy still needs further work. I thank the Minister and officials in the Environment Agency for all their work and for the change of culture under this Government over the last 18 months or so. That is genuinely welcomed.
Turning to the instrument itself, as the Minister said, it replaces the older carriers, brokers and dealers’ registration system with a proper environmental permit split sensibly into three categories: waste controlling, waste transporting and combined activities, so that oversight can match risk rather than applying as a single blunt instrument. Gone, hopefully, are the days when it was possible to register your dog as a waste carrier. Permits will run for three years, and the Environment Agency gains real power to check before granting a permit, rather than acting only after the damage is done. It also gains powers to suspend and revoke. This is a genuine structural improvement.
I want to be fair to the Minister on timing—she has already spoken about this—but obviously, this instrument has been a long time coming. Consultations closed in 2022, but the delay is not down entirely to this Government, but to past Governments. It is great that this instrument is here.
I have several questions. On exemptions, how will the department ensure that charities and other low-risk categories are not quietly colonised by operators or organised criminal networks seeking to avoid scrutiny? Will monitoring be ongoing, not one-off assessments at the drafting stage? On interrogation, how will permitted regimes interact with the digital waste tracking that has already been rolled out? Obviously, a permit is only as good as the data behind it. On exports, illegal and misdescribed waste exports remain a major route for criminal activity. What assessment has been made of this instrument’s bearing on waste that should not be leaving our shores or that is doing so mis-permitted?