Shockingly low percentage of fly tipping incidents in Liverpool result in fines

Less than 1% of fly-tipping offences in Liverpool result in fines, according to new figures from Liverpool Council.

LiverpoolWorld sent a Freedom of Information request (FOI) to the local authority, asking for the total number of fly-tipping incidents and their locations, and the number of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) handed out.

Liverpool City Council said it was ‘unable’ to provide the locations of each incident of fly-tipping, however, it did reveal that a shockingly low percentage of incidents resulted in the issuing of FPNs.

Fly-tipping in Liverpool

According to the information shared on October 3, 2023, Liverpool Council recorded 41,041 incidents of fly-tipping in the fiscal year of 2021/2 and issued 16 fixed penalty notices, equating to 0.039% of incidents resulting in fines.

In the fiscal year of 2022/2023, 28,406 incidents of fly-tipping were recorded, with 35 FPNs issued, equating to 0.12% - an improvement on the year prior.

In August, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), published a fly-tipping ‘league table’ for local authorities across England to highlight effective and ineffective enforcement. Covering the reporting period of April 2021 to March 2022, the table reveals which councils were the worst for handing out fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to fly-tippers. Liverpool had the lowest number of fines per incident, at just 0.0001.

However, a spokesperson for Liverpool City Council told LiverpoolWorld that these figures were likely ‘skewed’ by the Covid-19 pandemic.