Number of flytipping offences in Falkirk Council area between 2010 and 2018

The request was partially successful.

Jonathan Rainey

Dear Falkirk Council,

I write this letter under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information on flytipping:

1. How many flytipping incidents in the county that your authority controls were reported to Falkirk Council, Police Scotland (including then Strathclyde Police) and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency between 2010 and 2018?
2. How many flytipping cases were dropped between 2010 and 2018 because the evidence was found to be tampered with? Also, how many were dropped due to fears of reprisals from the reported offender(s)? How many were also dropped due to lack of evidence?
3. Can the citizens of Falkirk and the surrounding areas set up their own covert surveillance cameras to capture flytippers in the act themselves? If so, apart from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (especially regarding section 2 on privacy being exempt in the interest of preventing crime and disorder) what exact laws need to be taken into consideration which includes regards to the Information Commissioner’s Office? If high-quality footage of an offence was successfully captured, can the footage be used in court?
4. What is the Litter Control Strategy that Falkirk Council has to abide by when investigating flytipping cases along with dog fouling and littering cases?

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan Rainey

FOI, Falkirk Council

Good morning,

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

We acknowledge receipt of your information request dated 06/05/19 received on 07/05/19. The Reference Number for this is 97620.

We have 20 working days to deal with your request from the date that we received it but we will respond earlier where possible.

On behalf of Falkirk Council
Ann
Information Team

Your privacy is important to us. You can find out how we deal with your personal information here.

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WasteServices, Falkirk Council

1 Attachment

 

 

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)

 

FOI Reference 97620

 

We refer to your email of 7 May 2019 sent to Falkirk Council, which is
being dealt with as an information request under The Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA). Responses are appended to each
question below:

 

1.  How many flytipping incidents in the county that your authority
controls were reported to Falkirk Council, Police Scotland (including then
Strathclyde Police) and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
between 2010 and 2018?

 

Question 1 – reported incidents of fly tipping are as follows:

 

Year Count
2010 139
2011 228
2012 244
2013 219
2014 204
2015 207
2016 264
2017 326
2018 301
Grand Total 2132

 

2.  How many flytipping cases were dropped between 2010 and 2018 because
the evidence was found to be tampered with? Also, how many were dropped
due to fears of reprisals from the reported offender(s)? How many were
also dropped due to lack of evidence?

 

Point 2 – Falkirk Council has no figures for any of the requested sub
headings . 

3. Can the citizens of Falkirk and the surrounding areas set up their own
covert surveillance cameras to capture flytippers in the act themselves?
If so, apart from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights
(especially regarding section 2 on privacy being exempt in the interest of
preventing crime and disorder) what exact laws need to be taken into
consideration which includes regards to the Information Commissioner’s
Office? If high-quality footage of an offence was successfully captured,
can the footage be used in court?

Point 3 –as this does not request accountable evidence from Falkirk
Council, we are unable to provide a response  

 

4. What is the Litter Control Strategy that Falkirk Council has to abide
by when investigating flytipping cases along with dog fouling and
littering cases?

Our response to reported flytipping is in line with the legislative
requirements of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Dog Fouling
Scotland Act 2003.     Falkirk Council’s Litter Strategy is being reviewed
in line with the Code of Practice for Litter and  Refuse      

 

I have also attached spreadsheets, which detail on the plastic tonnages
and their end destination.

 

We trust this answers your request but should you have any further queries
please do not hesitate to contact us. Please see the attached leaflet
which explains your right to complain about the handling of your request
and/or the decision made.

 

Regards,

 

Waste Services

Falkirk Council

 

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Jonathan Rainey

Dear Falkirk Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Falkirk Council's handling of my FOI request 'Number of flytipping offences in Falkirk Council area between 2010 and 2018'.

Although I thank you for answering the 1st and 4th question in the previous FOI request, I am disappointed that your authority did not answer the 2nd and 3rd questions considering that many councils I have asked via whatdotheyknow.com have answered all the questions provided without making excuses and I would like to request that certain questions be answered as stated in the previous FOI request along with the following added questions below:

1. In response to the 2nd question, I was asking it in the context of both when flytipping cases are reported to your authority as well as when they are passed on separately to The Procurator Fiscal. I ask 1 extra question since your authority admitted that they do not hold data on flytipping charges being no longer investigated further due to the 3 reasons provided:
How many flytipping cases reported to your authority between 2010 and 2018 resulted in FPNs and/or criminal convictions?

2. In response to the 3rd question, no information was provided considering that other councils that have been asked the same question on whatdotheyknow.com including West Dunbartonshire, Midlothian and nearby Stirling and West Lothian and they have openly stated that members of the public are not permitted to use covert cameras because of many laws including RIPSA 2000, Data Protection Act 1998, Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 and regulations from the Information Commissioner's Office. West Lothian Council responded to the same answered questions:

"Covert cameras would not be allowed to be set up by individuals for us to
use the footage. As a Council, if we wanted to use covert cameras we have
to comply with Regulation to Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000
(RIPSA) legislation to be able to use them.

If overt camera footage is supplied by anyone, along with a statement from
them then we could consider its use as part of evidence for issuing a
Fixed Penalty Notice."

West Dunbartonshire Council responded:

"West Dunbartonshire Council residents, as with other members of the
general public, cannot set up covert CCTV cameras. In terms of
house/residence security any CCTV cameras would have to be clearly
marked with signage. Moreover the camera itself would also need to be
positioned in such a way that it was confined to entry security and
would not capture street images which might contain personal data of
members of the public going about their daily business.

The second part of your question 3 is based on covert cameras. Only
those bodies listed in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland)
Act are permitted to carry out covert surveillance. In this regard I would
refer you to the Office of Surveillance Commissioners.

I refer also to our response dated 27 September 2018 to your FOI
18/1951137 review request where we confirmed that West
Dunbartonshire Council does not use surveillance including covert
surveillance to pursue or identify flytipping offences."

I would like to rephrase the questions so they can be answered in this internal review request:
i) If the citizens of the Falkirk Council area give over their contact details to your authority when reporting flytippers, are their details involving their name(s) and address(es) mentioned to the offender(s)?
ii) Does your authority use covert and overt surveillance cameras to capture flytippers in the act?
iii) Would Article 8 (Section 2 for exemption to privacy) of the European Convention on Human Rights be applied as an excuse by your authority and the citizens of the Falkirk Council area to deploy covert and overt cameras to catch flytippers in the act? To explain the context of the 3rd question, this has been advised in a 2013 ICO document (see link here: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/consult...).

An extra link to my article is provided: https://jrainey94.wixsite.com/younglitte...

Can your authority confirm if all the rules and regulations highlighted in this internal review request as well as the article above are abided by?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan Rainey

FOI, Falkirk Council

Dear Jonathan

 

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

S.21(5) Review Notice

 

We acknowledge receipt of your request for review received on 06/06/19.
The Reference Number for this is 97620.

 

We have 20 working days to deal with your request from the date that we
received it but we will respond earlier where possible.

 

 

On behalf of Falkirk Council

Lynn

Information Team

 

 

Your privacy is important to us. You can find out how we deal with your
personal information [1]here.

 

 

 

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Bullough, Carl, Falkirk Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Rainey

 

Find attached responses to you follow up questions

 

Carl Bullough

Head of Environmental Services

Development Services

Falkirk Council

[1][email address]

 

[2]image001, Email Signature

 

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Jonathan Rainey

Dear Bullough, Carl,

Thanks for providing me with the new information but for the purposes of understanding the data provided for question 1:
I) Can your authority confirm how many of the total amount of flytipping offences reported to your authority resulted in FPNs and/or a successful prosecution?
ii) How many of the total amount of flytipping offences reported to your authority were no longer investigated because of insufficient evidence?

Hopefully both questions can be answered with the statistics provided per year, not just in total.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Rainey