£45 Million Enforcement Push Anchors First Liverpool Waste Crime Summit

The UK government is putting £45 million into waste crime enforcement over the next three years, a commitment that framed the first-ever Liverpool City Region Waste Crime Conference held this week and hosted by Halton Borough Council.

The Environment Agency and the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner organised the summit, which pulled enforcement bodies from across Merseyside into one room. The attendance list reads like an interagency task force: the Environment Agency, Merseyside Police, the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, the six councils of the Liverpool City Region, Defra, the UK Health Security Agency, and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service.

That's nine organisations signing up to share intelligence and coordinate enforcement activity against illegal waste operations across the region.

What did the agencies actually agree to?

According to the Environment Agency, which organised the event, the partners committed to closer working — sharing intelligence and coordinating activity to prevent and disrupt illegal waste operations and to protect communities and the environment.

In plain terms, the agencies pooled their enforcement ambitions rather than announcing new prosecutions, seizures or tonnage figures. This was a coordination summit, not an enforcement action, and its value will show up in casework down the line.

The takeaway: Merseyside's enforcement bodies now have a formal forum for joint action, but the measure of success will be illegal sites shut down, not meetings held.

Where does the £45 million fit?

The conference aligns with the government's wider waste crime programme. Beyond the £45 million investment over three years, the government has established a new Waste Crime Crackdown Group, chaired by Environment Secretary Angela Eagle. The group brings regulators and law enforcement together with the stated aim of dismantling criminal operations in the waste sector.

James Cruddas, Deputy Director Waste and Recycling, Circular Economy Directorate at Defra, set out the framing at the conference.

"Tackling waste crime requires a multi-agency effort," Cruddas said. "Our focus is on combining a clear national strategy with effective local delivery, ensuring that partners have the tools, intelligence and powers needed to combat criminality in the waste sector."

That quote carries the whole policy logic of the event: national strategy and money from Whitehall, delivery through local partnerships like the one formed in Liverpool.

The takeaway: £45 million and a Defra-chaired crackdown group give local partnerships funding and political backing they previously had to improvise.

Why Merseyside, and why now?

Merseyside Police Commissioner Emily Spurrell, who co-organised the conference, argued the regional coordination model is the region's strength.

"Waste crime has a real impact on local communities, affecting the places people live, work and take pride in," Spurrell said. "One of Merseyside's greatest strengths is our ability to work together, and bringing partners together to share expertise, intelligence and best practice is essential if we are to disrupt criminal activity, protect our communities and hold those responsible to account."

The first-ever designation matters here. No comparable Liverpool City Region waste crime conference existed before, and the organisers presented it as a template for collective action against illegal waste activity.

What happens next?

Watch two things. First, how the £45 million gets allocated across enforcement activity in the three-year window — that funding converts this summit's pledges into operational capacity. Second, whether the Waste Crime Crackdown Group under Angela Eagle produces coordinated enforcement outcomes that agencies in Liverpool can feed into.

The milestone that decides what happens next is the first tranche of funded enforcement action the new partnership delivers on the ground.