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Record number of English and Welsh councils use private firms for litter fines
(www.theguardian.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A record number of councils in England and Wales are using private companies to issue fines for littering and fly-tipping amid concern that some contractors are adopting unscrupulous tactics to profit from people.
In early 2022, freedom of information data from the civil liberties campaign group Manifesto Club showed 66 councils employed a private company to issue fines for environmental offences such as fly-tipping, dog fouling and smoking in prohibited areas.
People who spoke to the Guardian complained of being fined for feeding birds, for putting their bins out at the wrong time, and being falsely accused of fly-tipping.
In September 2019, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs produced guidance seeking to rein in the practice of issuing fines for profit.
One former worker at 3GS, who joined in 2019, alleges officers working for the company were expected to upload figures for how many fines they had issued at the end of the day.
Under UK law, it is illegal to drop litter and people can be issued with an FPN by way of an on-the-spot fine or a letter sent to the person’s home address.
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