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BBC UK have been reporting 517 incidents of fly tipping, 11 of them ‘super-sites’ like the one above, in England.

BBC Scotland, Scottish Labour and other media, you can be sure, have been scouring the country for something they can use to confirm that things are just as bad here.

Nothing so far. Could this be why?

So a major increase in interventions by police and Sepa inspectors in one year? Newsworthy but not for them?

Comparisons with England where all 11 super-sites are?

I’ll do the last bullet point first. Scotland’s more centralised approach with only one police force is inevitably more efficient.

Back to the interventions/closing down of sites – 167 in Scotland last year so, pro rata, you might expect 1 670 in England but it was only 743, less than half the level of such crucial activity.

How is this possible?

Scotland has roughly 25–30% more police officers per 1,000 population than England & Wales (e.g., ~3.0 vs. ~2.4 per 1,000). This reflects Scotland’s single national force (Police Scotland) structure since 2013, which has historically aimed for higher per-capita resourcing.

Sources:

1. https://beta.sepa.scot/media/gz5layr4/sepa-annual-report-accounts-2024-2025.pdf
2. https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/19/how-were-tackling-illegal-waste-dumping-and-protecting-our-environment
3. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00634/SN00634.pdf

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