National litter and flytipping strategy: baseline report
This report was completed as part of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy (NLFS) year one action plan, action 18; to Improving consistency of flytipping data data by developing a flytipping baseline for Scotland, identifying data gaps and changes that may be needed in the future.
Key findings – qualitative research findings
In addition to the quantitative data gathered from local authorities on flytipping incidents and enforcement actions, the project also looked to gather information on the wider topic of flytipping reporting and enforcement. The results of these qualitative questions can be found in Table 3 and the Baseline Data File. It should be noted that these additional qualitative research questions were intended to gather high level additional data. They provide limited insight into the wider topic of enforcement powers and flytipping investigations.
(Table 3) Qualitative data gathered from local authority stakeholders as part of the project
Question: Does the local authority use any other enforcement actions for incidents/cases related to flytipping?
Response
55% replied no
27% replied yes
9% replied N/A
9% did not answer
Additional feedback/ comments: One authority uses the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978 to recover costs from those that they can identify as having carried out flytipping. Another uses Duty of Care warnings (verbal and written), while another looks to liaise with SEPA on commercial cases and occasionally issues a wanting letter
Question: Does the local authority record the number of other enforcement actions taken for incidents/cases related to flytipping?
Response
64% replied no
36% replied yes
Additional feedback/ comments: Only one authority who answered “yes” provided a breakdown of other enforcement actions – in this case the authority issued 7 verbal Duty of Care warnings and 4 written Duty of Care warnings
Question: Does the local authority record if an investigation for an alleged flytipping incident takes place or not?
Response
82% replied yes
18% replied no
Additional feedback/ comments: It was outside of the scope of this project to probe why those authorities who answered “no” do not record if an investigation has taken place or not, but this would be an interesting area to investigate in future research projects
Question: Does the local authority accept reports of flytipping from private landowners (regardless of whether action is taken or not)?
Response
91% replied yes
9% replied no
Additional feedback/ comments: -
Contact
Email: NLFS@gov.scot
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