ARCHIVE: Flycapture fly-tipping national database background
The Flycapture database was set up in 2004 by Defra, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association. The aim of the database is to build the evidence base for fly-tipping in order to inform future policy making and to provide local authorities with a management tool which enables a problem solving approach to be taken to fly-tipping.
It records the number of fly-tipping incidents dealt with by the Environment Agency and local authorities, along with details of enforcement action taken.
When local authorities or the Environment Agency encounter an incident of fly-tipping, they record the details on this web based system. This includes the location of the incident, what was tipped, the size of the tip and any actions taken.
What is fly-tipping?
Fly-tipping is the common term used to describe waste illegally deposited on land as described under section 33 of the Environment Protection Act 1990.
However for the purposes of Flycapture waste should be counted as a fly-tip if it is too large to be removed by a normal hand-sweeping barrow. In simple terms, a single full bin bag upwards may constitute a fly-tip. Similarly several carrier bags full of rubbish dumped together would also constitute a single fly-tip.
Waste placed out at the wrong time can also be counted as fly-tipping for the purposes of Flycapture but local authorities are guided to use their discretion when recording such incidents.
What is the split of responsibilities between local authorities and the Environment Agency?
There is a national fly-tipping protocol between local authorities and the Environment Agency which sets out the responsibilities of both. Simply put, local authorities deal with smaller scale fly-tips while the Environment Agency deal with more serious, ‘big, bad and nasty’ fly-tips which often have serious criminal involvement.
The Data
1. How many fly-tips have been reported?
Local authorities in England reported that they dealt with 1.16 million incidents of flytipping in 2008-09.
2. Is that a rise or fall compared to 2007-08?
A slight fall. But the data requires some careful interpretation. The size and number of individual incidents is a matter for the officer on the ground to interpret (i.e. an incident can appear to be 1 tipper lorry load but is actually 4 transit van loads and vice versa), the officer will record it as it appears to him at the time while a different officer may record it differently therefore raising or lowering the overall number of incidents.
The data will never be 100% consistent across all 354 local authorities. Flytipping is the common term used to describe waste illegally deposited on land as described under section 33 of the Environment Protection Act 1990. Flytipping will be open to different interpretations and a decision taken at a local level may be reached after several different factors are taken into account including, was it deliberate? Could it actually be classed as litter instead? Is it actually waste placed out for collection incorrectly?
In particular, opinion may differ between local authorities over the classification of waste placed out incorrectly, or whether a single black bag of waste is flytipping or litter and in some cases the method of recording.
This should in no way detract from the fact that four years ago data on flytipping was nonexistent. We are now in the position where we have a reliable baseline of information on the level and cost of flytipping which can be used to inform national policy and by each local authority to deliver local solutions.
3. Do you consider a 9.3% decrease a great success?
It is obviously encouraging that this year’s figures show a downward trend, however, it is clear that with almost 1.2 million incidents in England in 2008-09 flytipping remains a serious environmental and social problem which blights our landscape. Our ambition must be to ensure that this downward trend continues (see below for Government action).
4. Are all fly-tips recorded?
No. All flytips dealt with by waste collection authorities and the Environment Agency should be recorded to Flycapture. Flytips on private land are not currently reported to Flycapture (although the Environment Agency is currently running a pilot scheme with some major landowner organisations to record incidents on private land).
5. How much has it cost local authorities to clear fly-tipping?
The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in 2008-09 was £54.9 million. Some authorities mitigate their share of this figure through their waste framework contracts, moving the cost of clearance from the taxpayer to their waste contractor.
6. How much does it cost local authorities to enforce against fly-tipping?
It is estimated that local authorities spent £18.2 million on enforcement action against flytipping in 2008-09. Some (although currently a small proportion) of this can be recovered by the award of costs from prosecution cases.
7. Which are the best and worst authorities?
Due to the variable nature of authorities and the different factors influencing flytipping and enforcement the data cannot be interpreted to provide “best and worst” authorities. An authority reporting a large number of flytips may also be taking a lot of action to address the situation and to properly record incidents, whereas one reporting few flytips may be taking little or no action. To a certain extent, some flytipping will always be beyond a local authority’s control.
A list of all local authorities and the numbers of incidents recorded for each authority is available on the Defra website.
8. How many fly-tipping prosecutions were there in 2008-09?
Local authorities carried out 2,000 prosecutions in 2008-09, a decrease from 2,180 in 2007-08. Of these 1,940 (97.4%) achieved a successful outcome. Authorities have increased their level of enforcement short of prosecution by 6%; this includes an increase in the number of warning letters, statutory notices (both to gather evidence and to enforce clean up) and formal cautions.
8. Why are the fines handed down by courts so low?
There is evidence that levels of fine are increasing but they are often still very low. This may be due to a number of factors, including the ability of the defendant to pay or the ability of the local authority to provide evidence of the socio and economic impacts of the crime.
Government has funded the development of Flycapture Enforcement, a specific training course aimed at local authority enforcement officers and their legal teams which aims to help local authorities put together more effective cases before the courts. These courses are now available in England and Wales.
Key Questions for Government
10. What is the Government doing to tackle fly-tipping?
Tackling fly-tipping and wider waste crime is a priority for the Government. The Government published its waste strategy for England 2007 in May, which set out a blueprint for not only recycling and reusing waste and diverting it from landfill but also preventing it in the first place. Current main areas of activity are:
11. What about flytipping on private land? Is it a problem and what is being done about it?
The Flycapture database currently only records incidents ‘dealt with’ by local authorities and the Environment Agency. It does not include flytipping that is dealt with by private landowners. Anecdotal evidence suggests that flytipping on private land is also a major problem. The Environment Agency is currently running a landowner partnership programme, working with major landowner organisations (e.g. NFU, CLA, British Waterways, National Trust) in an attempt to quantify the scale of the problem and develop strategies for combating flytipping on private land. This includes trialling the recording of incidents on private land on the Flycapture database.
Clearing illegally dumped waste from privately owned land is particularly difficult. Neither the local authority nor the Environment Agency is under any legal obligation to remove the waste. Placing a duty on the authorities to remove all waste from private land would simply encourage illegal dumping rather than tackle the problem. People would not pay the costs of legitimate disposal if they knew they could flytip it in the nearest field and the local tax payer would foot the clearance bill.
The Government is focusing on preventing flytipping from happening in the first place through a range of initiatives. It is also looking into how the Flycapture database can help build a better picture of the problem in relation to private land through inviting landowners or their representative organisations in future to submit data on a voluntary basis to Flycapture. The Environment Agency is currently running this project in co-ordination with Defra.
At a national level, Defra and the Environment Agency meet bi-monthly with major stakeholders such as the National Farmers Union, the Country Land and Business Association, Network Rail and the National Trust through the National FlyTipping Prevention Group. Their objective is to explore ways of improving the system of controls over fly-tipping and to identify better ways of preventing and tackling the problem. The group has, amongst other things, issued guidance to landowners on how to deal with flytipping.
12. Why is the Government introducing policies that will make flytipping worse, such as Landfill tax?
Landfill tax is a key policy tool in diverting waste away from landfill and achieving the national carbon benefits that brings.
However, there is some evidence that rising costs of legitimate disposal, including landfill sites, can lead to increases in flytipping. For example, the 2006 research report (PDF 900 KB)commissioned by Defra into the causes, incentives and solutions of fly-tipping prepared by the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science flagged rising landfill costs as one of the incentives, along with access and availability of local recovery and disposal sites.
Future landfill tax rises could increase the incentive to flytip, but it is difficult, if not impossible to estimate to what extent. It is also dependent on the level of enforcement and other prevention activity undertaken by the Environment Agency and local authorities, which if targeted (and funded) correctly could offset any increased incentive. Some also consider that giving long term price indications allows businesses to adapt their practices accordingly and prevent any unintended consequences.
It is also true to say that over half of all flytipped waste is household waste, and householders do not pay landfill tax directly so therefore the increases are unlikely to increase that source and type of flytipping.
13. Why is the Government introducing policies that will make fly-tipping worse such as alternate weekly collection (AWC)?
The way in which a local authority collects its household waste is a matter for its local decision makers in consultation with its residents.
There is insufficient evidence from the current flytipping data to conclude whether there is any link between the number of flytipping incidents and AWC. There is also no evidence that any local authorities have carried out their own analysis. Central analysis has not been possible due to the following factors:
14. How do you know local authorities are reporting consistently in the main? What are you doing to ensure that the data is as consistent and accurate as possible?
All local authorities have been issued with Flycapture guidance. The guidance manual sets out what should be recorded on the database although local authorities are given the freedom to use their discretion.
The Environment Agency, who host the Flycapture database, monitor and quality check the data provided. A rolling series of local authority training (delivered by Keep Britain Tidy) is also being run. Part of this seeks to ensure that authorities are reporting consistent, accurate data.
We have also held a number of stakeholder events and have regular Flycapture support groups in which data recording issues are discussed and resolved.
15. What are you doing to tackle poor performing local authorities?
In 2005-06 Best Value Performance Indicator BV199d was introduced. This measures local authority performance on fly-tipping by recording the number of flytipping incidents against the level of enforcement action being carried out. This year (2008-09) is only the third year that local authorities have received a performance ‘score’ and the individual results will be released in the public domain by the Audit Commission later in the year. This will enable local communities and strategic partnerships to hold poor performance to account.
For 2008-09, BV199d became National Indicator NI196 one of the revised suite of 198 performance indicators in the local government performance framework. We are working with poorer performing authorities through the relevant Government Offices to give further help and support. This will include making it clear that poor performance on flytipping should be addressed through its Local Area Agreement, adding another layer of local accountability.
16. The Countryside Alliance (via their report – ‘Time for Action’) and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (in their ‘Stop the Drop’ campaign) have both called for greater government action. What’s your response?
We welcome these organisations’ focus on litter and fly-tipping and will support them wherever possible. The Waste Strategy for England 2007 recognises tackling illegal waste activity as a priority for government. We will continue to implement our action plan to tackle illegal waste activity in all its forms much progress has been made on flytipping – local authorities are recording incidents more accurately and increasing the resource they put into enforcement. But more needs to be done to bring about year on year reductions. The Government’s flytipping and litter policies are not urban or rural focussed. Our approach is based on giving the regulators the tools to prevent environmental crime happening in the first place;
Background to Flycapture
17. What is Flycapture and why was it introduced?
The Flycapture database was set up in 2004 by Defra, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association. The aim of the database is to build the evidence base for flytipping in order to inform future policy making and to provide local authorities with a management tool which enables a problem solving approach to be taken to fly-tipping.
It records the number of flytipping incidents dealt with by the Environment Agency and local authorities, along with details of enforcement action taken.
When local authorities or the Environment Agency encounter an incident of flytipping, they record the details on this web based system. This includes the location of the incident, what was tipped, the size of the tip and any actions taken.
18. What is fly-tipping?
Flytipping is the common term used to describe waste illegally deposited on land as described under section 33 of the Environment Protection Act 1990.
However for the purposes of Flycapture waste should be counted as a flytip if it is too large to be removed by a normal hand-sweeping barrow. In simple terms, a single full bin bag upwards may constitute a flytip. Similarly several carrier bags full of rubbish dumped together would also constitute a single flytip.
Waste placed out at the wrong time can also be counted as flytipping for the purposes of Flycapture but local authorities are guided to use their discretion when recording such incidents.
19. What is the split of responsibilities between local authorities and the Environment Agency?
There is a national flytipping protocol between local authorities and the Environment Agency which sets out the responsibilities of both. Simply put, local authorities deal with smaller scale flytips while the Environment Agency deal with more serious, ‘big, bad and nasty’ flytips which often have serious criminal involvement.
Page last modified: 1 October 2009
Page published: 18 October
2005