Fly-tippers face being banned from driving as part of a new crackdown on waste criminals.
Ministers will give courts powers to punish criminals convicted of illegal dumping by adding penalty points to their licence, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Ministers hope offenders will be deterred by the threat of having their vehicles seized, and that serial fly-tippers will find it harder to operate without a vehicle.
A proposal to hand fly-tippers three penalty points on their licence was included in a Conservative amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.
But the Mail understands Labour’s plan could see drivers face an even larger points penalty.
Drivers can be disqualified from the roads if they build up 12 or more penalty points within a three-year period.
The new points penalty will require legislation, and Defra said it is currently ‘considering the appropriate legislative vehicle’.
Two fly-tippers were caught dumping rubbish from two white vans on a country lane near Meriden in the West Midlands in 2024
Footage showing men in a white van dumping rubbish near Nuneaton
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: ‘Fly-tipping damages our communities and the environment and we are taking action to stop them.
‘Litter louts who repeatedly break the law will see points added to their licence – and risk losing it for good if they continue to offend.
‘We are empowering local authorities to deal with fly-tipping, like seizing and crushing vehicles, and are urging them to make use of the whole range of measures available to them.’
Last month, Defra published guidance to help councils seize and crush more vehicles used for fly-tipping, or repurpose them for clean-up operations, along with advice on how to take cases to court.
A series of vast illegal dumps have gained national attention in recent months, prompting calls for tougher punishments against waste criminals.
Criminals can make large profits by charging to collect waste before illegally dumping it on public land without paying landfill tax, which now stands at £126.15 per tonne.
While some offenders are fined, experts fear the large profits on offer mean financial penalties are seen merely as a ‘cost of doing business’.
A couple dumping rubbish from the back of their van in rural Wiltshire last year. They have since been caught and fined
Last month, Defra published guidance to help councils seize and crush more vehicles used for fly-tipping
The proposal to hand out penalty points to fly-tippers forms part of the Government’s new Waste Crime Action Plan, which will be published shortly.
It is also making around £78billion available to council budgets in England this year to help fund key responsibilities, like tackling waste crime.
The 1.26million fly-tipping incidents recorded by councils in England last year represented a nine-per-cent rise on the year before.
The figures from Defra relate to rubbish illegally dumped on public land, with private landowners across the country facing clear-up costs from the scourge of having waste fly-tipped on their property.
The data from councils reveal that nearly two thirds of cases (62 per cent) involved household waste, with 777,000 incidents in 2024/2025, up on the 688,000 that had to be cleared up the previous year.
Household waste ranges from black bags of day-to-day rubbish to old furniture, carpets and bric-a-brac from loft and shed clearances.
Convicted fly-tippers can already face fines, community sentences or prison.