Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 10 March 2021.
Thank you. I mentioned various ways that we have worked with the council in my earlier answer to Jayne Bryant, but I would really encourage, as I say, all local authorities to fully utilise the tools and support that are available to them from Fly-tipping Action Wales, or make sure that they fully utilise the legislative tools that we've recently provided, such as the fixed-penalty notices that I mentioned that Newport council had brought forward—several of these—for small-scale fly tipping.
I think it is disappointing that the national fly-tipping statistics that we recently published still show that there's a significant number of local authorities in Wales, and that does include Newport, that have not prosecuted any fly-tipper in their areas. You referred to increased fly-tipping during the COVID-19 pandemic, and obviously the last figures that we published were for 2019-20, so that didn't include, obviously, or didn't reflect any potential impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The fly-tipping figures from April 2020, when we first went into lockdown, are still being gathered from local authorities, but it will be very interesting to see if there has been an increase. But, as I say, I would just urge all local authorities to use everything that we've provided in support and legislative tools in the first instance.