The Environment Agency (EA) has received funding of over €640,000 (£470,000) from the European Union (EU) to go towards tackling environmental crime.

As part of a partnership with prosecutors in Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, and also the EU Forum of Judges for the Environment (EUFJE), the EA will use the funding to develop the European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment (ENPE).

The funds, allocated by the EU’s LIFE programme, which since 1992 has contributed around €3.1 billion (£2.3 billion) to 3,954 projects protecting the environment in Europe, will allow the ENPE to start a five-year programme of work to strengthen prosecutors’ capacity to tackle environmental crime.

In particular, it will focus on illegal shipments of waste, the destruction of wildlife and natural habitats, and crimes relating to industrial discharges and chemicals.

The ENPE was founded in September 2012 by representatives from prosecuting bodies in seven countries (UK, France, Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Italy and Germany) to support environmental prosecutors and promote the exchange of information and experience. The EA holds presidency of the project’s board.

As the principal environmental regulator in England, the EA is responsible for enforcing regulations and prosecuting environmental crime. Each year, it prosecutes in the region of 400 cases regarding waste crime and industrial pollution, of which around 96 per cent are successful, according to the organisation.

Waste crime puts communities at risk

Jonathan Robinson, EA Executive Director of Legal Services and President of ENPE, said: “I am thrilled that the Environment Agency has secured this European funding.

“Environmental crime increasingly involves sophisticated and organised criminals, working across borders, and it can cause serious harm to the environment and put communities at risk.

“It is vital that the Environment Agency and other European environmental prosecutors work collaboratively to tackle this problem through bodies such as ENPE, and this funding will help us do that.”

EA raising profile of illegal waste activity

According to the EA, waste crime diverts up to £1 billion each year from legitimate businesses and public budgets, as well as affecting communities and harming the environment.

Therefore, it has been attempting to increase awareness of waste crime in recent months, warning landowners of the costs of tenants illegally dumping waste on their land. Under current laws, private landowners are responsible for the removal of illegally-deposited waste on their land, even if they are not complicit or responsible for the illegal activity.

The EA has also urged the public to be on the lookout for the telltale signs of waste crime. These include out-of-hours waste business activity, increases in the number of lorries entering a site, smoke caused by constant burning and water pollution nearby.

It says that around 41 per cent of active illegal waste sites are less than 50 metres from homes, schools, hospitals and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Illegal UK waste activity also makes its way to mainland Europe. An INTERPOL report, published earlier this week, found that just 35 per cent of waste electronics and electrical equipment (WEEE) discarded in the European Union was correctly recycled, with up to 4.7 million tonnes being ‘wrongfully managed or illegally traded within the continent’.

Electronic waste processors flouting regulations were found to cost up to £441 million every year in avoided compliance costs, with the value of the materials illegally removed from official streams being estimated as up to £1.2 billion.

Learn more about the European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment.