The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 26th February 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of household waste and recycling centre closures on incidences of fly-tipping.
Lord Douglas-Miller (Con, DEFRA): We have previously commissioned research into the drivers, deterrents and impacts of fly-tipping that suggested any friction in the system relating to the use of Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), which have negative impacts on cost or convenience, can act as provocations for normally law-abiding people or businesses to fly-tip or give their waste to someone who goes on to fly-tip. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 requires waste disposal authorities to provide places for residents to deposit household waste. It is a Local Authority responsibility to manage suitable availability.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how many household waste and recycling centres have closed since January 2023 because of budgetary constraints of local authorities.
Lord Douglas-Miller: The Government does not have detailed information on decisions behind local authority service implementation. Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) are an important service to help ensure residents can dispose of waste in a responsible manner and we encourage local authorities to ensure appropriate provisions are made.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government whether they plan to encourage local councils to replicate the ‘mega skip’ days run by Wandsworth Council to reduce incidences of fly-tipping.
Lord Douglas-Miller: Across two rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme we have awarded nearly £1.2m to help councils across the country introduce interventions to tackle fly-tipping hotspots. Successful projects have included community or ‘waste amnesty’ days. A selection of case studies from completed projects are available online so that others can learn about those interventions which were most successful. These can be found at https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/fly-tipping-intervention-grant-scheme(opens in a new tab).
We are currently reviewing applications for a further round of grants, which could see an additional £1m handed out in the spring to help even more councils tackle the issue.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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