Burnham announces plans to clean up illegal waste dumps – UK politics live

Andy Burnham has said fly-tippers will be forced to pay for the clean-up when they dump waste illegally.

The prime minister laid out his plans to crackdown on waste crimes as he visited an illegal dump in West Yorkshire.

double quotation mark We’ve begun a much more networked approach to this, where we’re bringing the National Crime Agency in to work with the Environment Agency, increasing the penalties and bearing down now on the organised crime that lies behind some of what you see behind me.

Asked why the National Crime Agency was involved, the prime minister said:

double quotation mark It’s building the intelligence as to who is behind this, the networks that are orchestrating what is a very serious crime, and then using the Proceeds of Crime Act to make them pay for the clean-up.

It cannot be right that we leave the situation to build, the public purse then exposed in relation to the clean-up.

But actually we should be getting in much earlier, apprehending them, using all of the intelligence that comes through that investigation to make sure the polluter pays.