What the government’s crackdown on waste crime means for landowners and rural businesses 

In March 2026, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its Waste Crime Action Plan, a wide-ranging set of proposals that amount to the most assertive government response to illegal waste activity seen for many years. The Plan makes no apology for its aims. Tougher enforcement, tighter regulation, and a zero-tolerance approach to those operating outside the law are all on the table. For landowners, rural businesses, and anyone with legal responsibilities around waste, it is worth understanding what is being proposed and what it could mean in practice. 

Why is the government acting now? 

The scale of waste crime in England and Wales has become impossible to ignore. Illegal waste activity is estimated to cost the economy around £1 billion each year. It undermines legitimate operators, distorts competition, poses serious risks to public health and ecosystems, and has become an increasingly visible source of public frustration, from fly-tipped roadsides to large-scale illegal dumping sites. 

Pressure for stronger action has been building for some time. The National Waste Crime Survey 2025 found widespread dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of the Environment Agency (EA), with respondents calling for tougher sanctions and more assertive action. The Plan is, in part, a direct response to that criticism. It signals a clear political commitment to zero tolerance, bringing together tougher enforcement powers, tighter regulation, and closer collaboration between agencies. 

Police-style powers for Environment Agency officers 

One of the most striking proposals in the Plan is the potential granting of police-style enforcement powers to Environment Agency (EA) officers. This is currently being considered by Defra and the Home Office, and would represent a significant step change in the EA’s capacity to intervene directly and pursue those responsible for waste offences on the ground. 

For context, the EA already has a range of enforcement tools available to it, including the ability to issue enforcement notices, suspend or revoke waste permits, and seize vehicles. The addition of police-style powers would go further, enabling more assertive frontline action in situations where waste crime is actively occurring. Alongside this, more than £50 million has been allocated to the EA over the next three financial years to increase on-the-ground enforcement activity, and a new Operational Waste Intelligence and Analysis Unit is being created to combine visual imagery, financial data, and criminal intelligence in one place. 

What the reforms mean in practice 

The Plan is structured around three objectives: prevent, enforce, and remediate. On the prevention side, Defra is progressing several major regulatory changes. Waste management and transport regulation is moving from a light-touch registration system into the fuller environmental permitting regime. The criminal offences this targets are wide-ranging, and include operating a waste site without an environmental permit, knowingly causing or permitting illegal waste disposal, and the illegal transportation of waste are all serious matters carrying the risk of imprisonment, unlimited fines, and prohibition from holding future environmental permits. The proposed increase in maximum custodial penalties to five years reflects how seriously the government now regards these offences. Digital waste tracking will replace existing paper-based monitoring, and a number of waste permit exemptions will be removed or tightened following evidence of exploitation. 

Fly-tipping sits at the other end of the scale but is equally a criminal matter, carrying penalties including unlimited fines and up to twelve months’ imprisonment on summary conviction. The Plan’s proposal to add penalty points to the driving licences of those caught fly-tipping signals a willingness to use every available mechanism to deter offenders, a message that will resonate in rural areas where fly-tipping on private land is a persistent and damaging problem. 

Enforcement will be further strengthened through the expansion of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, new technology including drones and automated screening tools for HGV operator licence applications, and increased collaboration with HM Land Registry to identify unusual waste crime patterns. Defra has also indicated that illegal operators may be named publicly, and that banks and financing companies could be informed of waste criminality, with potential consequences for offenders’ business relationships. 

The remediation strand of the Plan acknowledges that enforcement alone does not address the harm that illegal waste causes. On an exceptional basis, the EA will now step in to clear sites where waste presents an unacceptable risk to public health or the environment. Criminal prosecution will still follow, and the costs of clearance will be pursued from the offender wherever possible. 

The position of landowners and rural businesses 

The challenge for landowners is not straightforward. Waste deposited on private land without the owner’s knowledge or consent is a persistent problem, particularly in rural areas, and the legal position can be an uncomfortable one. A landowner can find themselves liable for the costs of clearing illegally dumped waste even where they played no part in putting it there, if the EA or local authority concludes it poses a sufficient environmental risk. 

The Plan recognises that this is a major issue, and Defra has signalled its intention to explore insurance options that would give landowners and businesses some protection against illegal dumping on their land. The detail has yet to be worked out, but the acknowledgement matters. The current position asks innocent parties to bear costs that are not of their making, and that is now at least on the agenda. 

For rural businesses, particularly those in agriculture or with significant land holdings, the heightened focus on enforcement has two practical dimensions. First, the prospect of increased inspections and audits means that compliance with waste duty of care obligations has never been more important. Second, as the EA’s intelligence and enforcement capacity grows, the risk of being caught up in an investigation, even tangentially, increases. 

A reminder of the key obligations under the waste duty of care 

The waste duty of care is a legal obligation that applies to anyone who produces, carries, keeps, treats, or disposes of controlled waste. It requires businesses and individuals to take all reasonable steps to ensure that waste is managed without harming the environment or human health. In practice, this means ensuring that waste is only handled by registered waste carriers, that it is taken to sites with the appropriate environmental permit or exemption, and that accurate written records are maintained throughout. A waste transfer note must be obtained and kept for at least two years for non-hazardous waste, and three years for hazardous waste. 

Given the Plan’s explicit focus on businesses’ waste management arrangements, reviewing your current compliance position is a sensible and timely step. Failures in this area can result in criminal prosecution, substantial fines, and reputational damage, regardless of whether there was any deliberate intent to circumvent the rules. 

The Waste Crime Action Plan in practice 

The Waste Crime Action Plan represents a genuine and sustained commitment to tackling illegal waste activity, rather than a short-term announcement. With significant funding behind it, new intelligence capabilities, and the prospect of expanded enforcement powers, the landscape for waste regulation in England and Wales is changing materially. Businesses that take their compliance obligations seriously have nothing to fear from these reforms and may ultimately benefit from a more level playing field as illegal competitors face greater scrutiny. For those who have been less careful, or who are unaware of the full extent of their obligations, now is the right moment to address that. 

If you have questions about waste duty of care compliance, environmental liability on your land, or any aspect of waste crime and enforcement, our Crime team would be happy to help. Please get in touch.