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Litter: Smoking

Volume 494: debated on Monday 15 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce smoking-related litter. (277809)

DEFRA funds Keep Britain Tidy (formerly known as ENCAMS) to carry out the annual Local Environment Quality Survey of England. The results for the seventh survey were published in March 2009 and are available on the Keep Britain Tidy website at:

www.keepbritaintidy.org

Smokers’ materials remain, by far, the most prevalent item, being present on 78 per cent. of all sites visited. (The survey records only the incidence—that is to say the percentage of sites—where each type of litter occurs; it does not attempt to record the volume.)

Dropping any smoking-related litter is an offence under section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. A person found guilty of the litter offence may be fined up to £2,500 in a magistrates court, or, as an alternative to prosecution, issued with an on the spot fixed penalty notice of between £50 and £80. Litter can blight neighbourhoods and the minority who choose to drop it on the ground, rather than put it in a bin, have no excuse for their behaviour.

Through its funding of Keep Britain Tidy, the Government support behavioural change and awareness changing campaigns, as well as providing guidance to local authorities.