Ringfencing fly-tipping fines for community benefit

Defra has said that from 1 April 2024, money raised from fixed penalty notices will be be reinvested locally in clean-up and enforcement.

The NFU is urging local authorities to use funds raised from fly-tipping fines to assist with clean ups on private land as well as public land following Defra’s announcement that it will be ringfencing money raised from fixed penalty notices for such activities.

Defra said the changes would see money paid by criminals go directly back into repairing the damage from these crimes or into enforcement efforts to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Read our response in full.

This consultation has now closed.

The NFU has submitted its response to the government's proposals. Read our summary below:

We welcome the Prime Minister’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan, and like the government, we would also like to see councils taking a much tougher approach to tackling litter and fly-tipping, utilising their enforcement powers more frequently for more effective punishments that deter criminals dumping waste illegally.

The number of FPNs issued in 2021/22 was 91,000. We questioned if there would be enough fixed penalty notices to generate an amount that would be considered material to the cost of the service.

We would welcome the inclusion of the enforcement functions to be used by local authorities on all land, both publicly and privately managed land.

In our response, we also called for greater consistency across how local authorities, the Environment Agency and the police engage with private land managers who are victims of fly-tipping. We believe it should not be the sole responsibility of the land managers to deal with this crime, when it is a community-wide issue.

In our view, it is imperative that these proposals are not limited to fly-tipping and littering incidents solely on public land.

NFU members can read our response in full at: Consultation on amendments to the use of fixed penalty notices – NFU response

Defra is looking at introducing further legislation to restrict the use of fixed penalty notice receipts to enforcement and clean-up functions only.

The consultation will seek views to refine the government's understanding of how these receipts are currently spent, and the potential impacts of these proposed new restrictions.

The move would see money paid by those fined funnelled back into enforcement efforts as well as repairing the damage caused by such crimes.

The NFU will be responding to the consultation.