Between 2020 and 2021 there were 1.13 million cases of fly-tipping in England, up 18 per cent from the previous year. Not only does fly-tipping present a risk to public health, but it also costs the country up to £392 million a year.
New surveillance projects
In an effort to curb this fly-tipping epidemic, the Environment Minister, Jo Churchill recently announced that councils throughout the UK will receive new grants worth £450,000, which are to be used specifically to trial innovative new surveillance projects for this purpose. Proposed projects include the use of covert and overt CCTV cameras at hot-spot locations to reduce the number of dumping waste illegally, while also providing further evidence for local authorities to identify the serial offenders in their area. In addition, some councils plan to take this a step further and use a combination of Artificial Intelligence enabled Rapid Deployable Cameras and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras to provide an alert to any visible left items at fly-tipping hotspots in real-time and link them back to the vehicle that deposited them.
Churchill stated, ‘’no one should be tempted to fly tip or turn to waste criminals and rogue operators…we will learn from the successes-and replicate them.’’
RIPA training
Bond Solon has a variety of RIPA courses available in order to support your staff in advance of rolling out these new surveillance projects, depending on their seniority and experience, therefore ensuring that all projects are compliant with the relevant regulations. Our RIPA Awareness course is suitable for those who are new to the role and require comprehensive training on the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, whilst our RIPA Refresher course is suitable for those who simply need a refresher of the most recent legislative changes. We also have a number of courses suitable for more senior staff members, such as our:
- RIPA Senior Responsible Officer course
- RIPA Applicants and Gatekeepers Training course
- RIPA Authorising Officers for Law Enforcement Agencies course
If you would like more information on Bond Solon’s RIPA training courses or would like to enquire about booking your staff members onto a course, please visit our course page or get in touch with on of the team on +44 (0)20 7549 2549.
Author: Meera Shah, Content Manager