Corporate report

Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC): end of year report 2024 to 2025

Published 29 July 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

The Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) is a multi-agency taskforce. It works in partnership to tackle serious and organised crime in the UK waste industry. The JUWC is comprised of 11 enforcement organisations and 2 partners that represent the waste industry.

JUWC partners are:

• Environment Agency
• Natural Resources Wales
• Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
• Northern Ireland Environment Agency
• His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
• Police
• National Fire Chiefs Council
• British Transport Police
• National Crime Agency
• Revenue Scotland
• Welsh Revenue Authority
• Environmental Services Association
• Chartered Institute for Waste Management

This report showcases the performance of the JUWC for the financial year of 2024 to 2025.

Meeting our priorities

The JUWC priorities, Prepare, Prevent, Protect and Pursue were developed using the 4P model, and are set out in the Business Plan. These priorities guide the work of the JUWC to tackle crime in the UK waste industry, and performance can be measured against them. Examples of work carried out in line with our priorities are detailed in this report.

Prepare: reduce the impact of criminality where it takes place

The JUWC deliver training within the Environment Agency on prevention and disruption methods. They also contribute to training through the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP) raising awareness, which has upskilled over 3000 enforcement and police officers.

Prevent: prevent people from engaging in serious and organised crime

In collaboration with partners HMRC, Welsh Revenue Authority, and Revenue Scotland the JUWC created a fraud alert and educational webinar. The webinar was targeted at waste producers, providing information around criminal activity in the waste industry. The webinar also informed waste producers of due diligence checks that can be carried out to prevent their waste getting into the hands of criminals.

Protect: our interventions and activity protect the UKs critical infrastructure, environment and communities

The JUWC carries out disruptions such as:

• issuing stop notices to illegal waste sites
• permit refusals to principal nominals of our investigations

This reduces the environmental harm caused by organised crime groups, in addition to having a positive impact on local communities and legitimate businesses.

Pursue: prosecute and disrupt people engaged in serious and organised criminality

The JUWC continues to pursue and disrupt organised criminality through a variety of methods:

• serving stop notices on illegal waste sites
• conducting road stops to check waste carrying vehicles
• seizing vehicles
• organising days of action and supporting arrests made by partners

Performance

This performance year the JUWC has:

• led or supported 34 operations
• organised and/or attended 70 days of action
• supported 13 arrests made by partners linked to these days of action
• delivered 40 awareness raising or training presentations

Successes

Europol environmental crime visit to the UK

In April 2024 the JUWC hosted representatives from Europol Environmental Crime and strategic partners from across the UK. The meeting facilitated sharing knowledge of the challenges we must tackle and the capabilities that can be used to achieve this.

Multi-agency road stops day of action

The JUWC joined a multi-agency road stops day of action in November 2024. They joined up with:

• Environment Agency
• Kent Police Rural Crime Team
• Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)
• Canterbury County Council

Results from the day of action included:

• 22 vehicles stopped (8 of which were waste carrying)
• 8 traffic offence reports issued
• 5 vehicles seized
• 2 waste carrier lorries issued with prohibitions
• 2 producers issued by Canterbury County Council
• 1 arrest

Photo shows an articulated lorry being inspected during the day of action. Sign in the foreground reads ‘Joint Unit for Waste Crime Operation in progress’.

Metal crime week of action

In March 2025 the JUWC joined partners on Operation Goldjuno, a national metal crime week of action. The week focused on scrap metal dealers to reduce infrastructure crime. Partners involved in the week of action included:

• British Transport Police
• Natural Resources Wales
• BT Openreach
• Network Rail
• Local Authorities

Initial results from the week of action:

• 100 scrap metal dealers visited
• 45 mobile vehicle collectors inspected
• 8 vehicles seized
• 3 illegal sites identified
• 2 arrests made

In preparation for this and future metal crime weeks of action, the JUWC has been involved in upskilling enforcement and police officers. So far, over 3000 officers have been trained via British Transport Police (BTP) to develop their knowledge and understanding of waste crime and environmental legislation.

Photo showing an a mound of metal waste in background (crushed vehicles, various metal items) with an Environment Agency officer in the foreground. This was a site visit during the week of action.

Fraud alert and educational webinar on criminal activity in the waste sector

In September 2024 the JUWC hosted an educational webinar in collaboration with partners HMRC, Welsh Revenue Authority, and Revenue Scotland. The webinar provided a background to criminal activity in the waste industry, and the impact it has on legitimate businesses and the environment.

The webinar followed a fraud alert that was sent out to waste producers across the UK. Over 700 waste producers registered for the webinar, and there were 400 live attendees.

The webinar was recorded and has now been published:

• Fraud alert and educational webinar on criminal activity in the waste sector

Communications

JUWC group page on GOV.UK

In January 2025 we launched a JUWC GOV.UK group page. This provides the public with information about the membership and priorities of the JUWC, along with links to useful resources and contact information.

Social media

LinkedIn insights for 2024 to 2025:

• 701 followers
• 331 new followers
• 20,417 post impressions
• 570 reactions

X insights for 2024 to 2025:

• 697 followers
• 17,141 post impressions
• 163 reactions

Our LinkedIn account has gained 331 followers and seen an increase from 11,049 impressions last year to 20,417 impressions this year. We continue to see more post impressions and engagement on LinkedIn than X, our content has been focussed to reflect this.

JUWC Manager comment

As we move into the fifth operational year of the JUWC, this performance report provides the opportunity to reflect on the successes over the year.

Waste crime continues to blight our communities and the environment. Criminal networks who operate to make financial gain from this continue to look for ways to diversify the ways in which they offend.

This performance report displays how the partners of the JUWC have continued to adapt to deliver successes and impact upon this evolving criminality. Our ability to remain agile and flex partnership-wide approaches to this criminal activity has been vital to the success we have seen.

This complex organised criminality has been officially recognised by law enforcement across Europe. This is detailed in the Europol report into serious and organised crime -EU SOCTA 2025: The changing DNA of serious and organised crime.

I am exceedingly proud of the amazing work being undertaken by JUWC staff and partners. The examples and performance outputs referred to in this report provide a small sample of the outstanding work being delivered in the fight against waste crime.

Reporting waste crime

If you have any information about illegal activity in the waste sector, we encourage you to report it. You can:

• report anonymously to Crimestoppers: giving information anonymously
• in England, Scotland or Wales contact the Environment Agency/Scottish Environment Protection Agency/Natural Resources Wales incident hotline number (24 hour service) on 0800 80 70 60
• in Northern Ireland, contact the Northern Ireland Environment Agency by emailing environmentalcrime@daera-ni.gov.uk

You can also anonymously report serious concerns about your employer if you suspect wrongdoing in an area we regulate:

• Whistleblowing: reporting serious wrongdoing to the Environment Agency

Contact details

JUWC@environment-agency.gov.uk