Police under fire in damning report into waste crime

The Environment Agency (EA), police and other agencies are failing to stop fly-tipping by organised crime groups, a cross-party group of peers has found.

In a damning letter to the government, members of the House of Lords' Environment and Climate Change Committee called for an independent review of waste crime, with the current approach "inadequate". Their report described the EA as "slow to respond to even the most flagrant and serious illegality" - and said its taskforce on waste crime appears "ineffective".

Police are accused of showing a "lack of interest" in the crime, while penalties for criminals do not match their profits and are "insufficient to deter future offending". Read more:Dirty work: The fly-tippers turning trash into cash The Lords' committee has called for the EA's Joint Unit for Waste Crime to do more to encourage collaboration between various authorities, and for the Department for Environment, Rural and Food Affairs to develop and publish targets for tackling this issue.

Peers have also demanded an end to what they call the "merry-go-round of reporting" where members of the public who report fly-tipping and waste crime in their area get bounced between various agencies. This is something Sky News has often heard from victims - they will call the police, only to be told to speak to the council, which then pushes them over to the EA.

Peers want a "single telephone number and web portal" which would triage responsibility for each case. Read more from Sky News:Could the UK run out of drinking water?Mystery of what killed billions of starfish solved An EA spokesperson said: "We recognise the recommendations of the report and are committed to doing more.

"Last year alone, our dedicated teams shut down 462 illegal waste sites and prevented nearly 34,000 tonnes of waste being illegally exported - showing that we can make real change despite the challenges involved.".