A new unit will bring together law enforcement agencies and environmental regulators to target waste criminals.
On 16 January a new task force called the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) was created to tackle serious and organised waste crime, such as dumping hazardous materials on private land, false labelling and financial fraud. The unit will bring together law enforcement agencies, environmental regulators, HMRC and the National Crime Agency to crack down on waste crime, which in 2018 alone cost UK economy at least £600 million, and the Home Office found that perpetrators are often involved in other criminal activities, such as large scale fraud and modern slavery.
The Governmental press release states that the new unit will conduct site inspections, make arrests and prosecutions and, upon conviction, push for heavy fines and prison sentences.
By working together JUWC will be able to share the intelligence between agencies more easily and promptly to take swifter action when investigating criminal waste operations and other related illegal activities, such as money laundering and human trafficking.
The new unit will significantly improve the Environment Agency's existing efforts to tackle waste crime. Last year, the Environment Agency's waste team stopped illegal activities at 912 sites, up by 12% from the previous year, and as a result of the prosecutions, businesses and individuals together were fined almost £2.8 million for environmental offences in 2018.
Chair of the JUWC Board, Toby Willson said: "The war against waste crime just took a giant step forward. The launch of this new unit means we have now a full complement of partners across law enforcement as well as our counterparts in Scotland and Wales to bring down waste criminals for good.
"We will target serious and organised criminals across the country as they try to illegally exploit the waste industry and the environment. These criminal gangs need to know that we have them in our sights."
The JUWC is one of a number of initiatives in the Government's landmark Resources and Waste Strategy, which heavily focuses on tackling waste crime and significantly improving the levels of performance in the waste industry.
