The Waste Crime Action Plan, published by Defra on 20 March 2026, sets out a coordinated, England‑wide strategy to tackle waste crime, explicitly including fly‑tipping, which is considered both a local environmental blight and a form of organised criminal activity.
The Plan is structured around three pillars:
- Prevention – stopping waste crime before it happens
Key measures include:
- Tightening the regulation of waste carriers, brokers and dealers – Registration and oversight will be strengthened by moving aspects of the regime into the environmental permitting framework, closing loopholes exploited by rogue operators
- Mandatory digital waste tracking – A single digital system will track waste movement from production to disposal, replacing paper transfer notes
- Available from 2026 and mandatory from October 2026 – This aims to make it significantly harder for waste to be diverted into fly‑tipping or illegal sites without detection
- Reform of waste exemptions – Three exemptions will be removed and seven tightened, reducing opportunities for abuse under the guise of “low‑risk” activities
- Enforcement – Stronger and earlier intervention
The Plan commits to a substantial escalation in enforcement capability. The government confirms plans to give EA officers police‑style powers under PACE and POCA, including:
- Search and seizure
- Arrest without warrant
- Asset confiscation and financial investigation – This explicitly treats waste crime, including serious fly‑tipping, as serious organised crime
- Increased penalties – Offences involving illegal transport, treatment or disposal of waste may attract custodial sentences of up to five years
- Greater resourcing – Additional funding is committed for enforcement staff, technology (including drones and intelligence tools) and multi‑agency working via the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC)
- Remediation – dealing with the harm caused
Remedial measures within the Plan include:
- Faster clearance of large‑scale illegal waste sites
- A greater role for the EA in stepping in where landowners cannot reasonably address hazardous waste
- Exploring insurance or cost‑recovery mechanisms to protect landowners and farmers affected by fly‑tipping
How will the Plan affect fly‑tipping in practice?
Although the Plan covers all forms of waste crime, fly‑tipping is a central policy focus. Its impact can be understood across four main areas.
Higher risk of detection
Digital waste tracking will make it easier to trace responsibility back through the waste chain, including producers who fail to carry out proper duty‑of‑care checks.
The Plan anticipates earlier intervention, using intelligence, vehicle tracking, surveillance and financial data to identify offenders before repeated fly‑tipping occurs.
As such, fly‑tipping becomes harder to conceal and easier to evidence, even where waste is dumped covertly.
Harsher and more disruptive sanctions
New sanctions include driving licence penalty points, vehicles being seized and destroyed, custody and the potential for POCA proceedings to be brought against the offender. This changes the narrative for would-be fly-tippers as the consequences they face can be much more severe.
Increased pressure on waste producers and businesses
The Plan reinforces the duty of care on anyone who produces or handles waste, which can result in investigations being opened to consider the source of waste. This additional scrutiny and risk for waste producers and businesses is intended to ensure a more diligent waste disposal process.
Overall impact
In practical terms, the Waste Crime Action Plan marks a step‑change in how fly‑tipping is treated:
- From a mere nuisance offence → serious environmental and economic crime
- From a reactive enforcement → intelligence‑led, preventative intervention
- From fines → custody, asset seizure, licence disqualification and more severe criminal consequences.
If implemented fully, fly‑tipping is likely to become riskier, more traceable and more costly for offenders, while giving regulators and authorities a far stronger enforcement toolkit.
At Dyne Solicitors, we specialise in waste and environmental matters. If you would like a no-obligation discussion with one of our team, please contact Patrik Jones-Wright or John Dyne.