Fines for illegal dumping decreased over past year with only 0.2% of incidents resulting in court action

Fly-tipping incidents across England have reached the highest level since current records began, with most offences continuing to involve household waste.

In 2024-25, 1.26m fly-tipping incidents were recorded by local authorities, an increase of 9% on the 1.15m reported in the year before, according to data released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Wednesday.

This data does not include the 98 incidents of large-scale, illegal dumping dealt with by the Environment Agency, or those cleared by private landowners.