To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 14 January 2008, Official Report, column 858W, on fly-tipping: prosecutions, if he will provide equivalent figures for 2007-08. (262159)

In 2007-08, local authorities and the Environment Agency reported 1,285,300 fly-tipping incidents on the Flycapture system ranging from single black bags to “significant multiple loads”.

1,969 prosecutions were taken against fly-tippers in 2007-08, 1,865 (95 per cent.) of which were successful.

Prosecution figures only represent cases taken through the court system and do not reflect the wider range of enforcement actions available to local authorities.

In 2007-08, local authorities also took an additional 179,122 enforcement actions against fly-tippers, consisting of warning letters, statutory notices, fixed penalty notices, formal cautions and injunctions.