We recently sent Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests to all England’s 318 Councils, asking them various questions about their approach to litter fines, enforcement and litter bin provision. Have a look at the attached spreadsheet to see what your local Council does. If it’s missing, that’s because they didn’t respond.
These are the topline findings:
- A large number of Councils responded to our 10 questions – 261 out of 318. An 82% response rate.
- In 2021/22, 21% of Councils issued ZERO fines for littering – ie. in their areas, litter is an unpunished criminal offence.
- 66% of Councils issued less than 2 fines a week. Pathetically paltry!
- Private sector enforcement companies are massively more successful at enforcing the law (against littering) than in-house Councils workers.
- 50x more fines are issued for car parking contraventions compared to littering offences.
- Compared to 2018/19, the annual average number of littering fines has dropped by 54% from 1,382 to 633.
- Astonishingly, Councils have no real idea of the number of bins in their area.
