Littering is a crime.
Littering is anti-social and creates an unpleasant environment for everyone.
Keep Britain Tidy say that two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day, costing taxpayers over £1 billion a year for street cleaning.
Litter is not defined by law and can be anything that is dropped, things like chewing gum, cigarette butts and food and drink packaging.
Litter can take many years to break down, during which time it can cause harm to wildlife, make areas look uncared for and in the case of food litter, attract pests such as pigeons and rats.
Littering from vehicles
Under the Littering From Vehicles Outside London (Keepers: Civil Penalties) Regulations 2018, a civil penalty can be issued against the owner/registered keeper of any vehicle from which litter is thrown, even if it was discarded by someone else.
Where we find evidence, we will seek to identify and locate those responsible and taken enforcement action.
How to report littering from vehicles
If you see someone littering from a vehicle you can report this to us using the form below and provide the following –
- date and time it happened
- location
- vehicle description for example registration, colour, make
- confirm who littered for example driver, front passenger, rear passenger
- tell us what was littered
- describe what happened
- describe the person responsible
- tell us if you have a recording of the incident for example photos or dash cam footage
Any information we ask you to provide, will only be used to help us to take action against the person responsible. If you have confirmed you have photos or video footage, please keep this safe as you will be asked to provide this once you have completed this form.
Access further information on street scene services
- request the installation of additional street litter bins
- request litter bins to be emptied
- the removal of litter
- help to organise a litter pick
- repair/replace existing street litter bins
- to install stickers, signs or stencils
What to do
If you are the owner/registered keeper of a vehicle and have received a penalty notice issued under the Littering from Vehicles outside London (Keepers: Civil Penalties) Regulations 2018, this will explain how to:
- make payment or
- make representations
Liability as vehicle owner/registered keeper
Littering remains a criminal offence and persons depositing litter, whether from a vehicle or not and can be liable for prosecution and/or to a fixed penalty notice.
The Littering from Vehicles outside London (Keepers: Civil Penalties) Regulations 2018 introduced an alternative sanction where a prosecution could not be brought where the litterer inside any vehicle could not satisfactorily identified. In those cases, the person liable to pay a civil fixed penalty is the owner/registered keeper of the vehicle from which litter is thrown at the time of the offence.
Liability can be discharged by the owner/registered keeper where one of the following has taken place -
- a criminal fixed penalty notice is issued to the person committing the littering offence, whether or not that person is the vehicle’s keeper
- the person who littered is prosecuted in a Magistrates’ Court
- civil fixed penalty has been paid by the vehicle’s keeper under the Littering from Vehicles Outside London (Keepers: Civil Penalties) Regulations 2018
If any civil fixed penalty is not paid within 28 days and the recipient has not made any representation against the penalty notice issued, the amount of the penalty increases by 100%. If it is still unpaid, the civil debt will be recovered via the HM Courts & Tribunals Service's Traffic Enforcement Centre.
Appeals
Those who receive a civil penalty have a right to make representations within 28 days, under a number of grounds set out in the Littering from Vehicles Outside London (Keepers: Civil Penalties) Regulations 2018 and these will be confirmed in writing to the owner/registered keeper.
Persons who disagree with any decision made in regards to representations made will have the right of appeal to an independent adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal England and Wales.
Further details can be found on the traffic penalty tribunal website
There are no grounds for appeal regarding any decision to issue a criminal fixed penalty notice for littering and if this is disputed, the opportunity to do so would be in the Magistrates' Court.
Penalties
If you're seen dropping litter in Hull this may result in -
- £100 fixed penalty (reduced to £80, if paid within seven days)
- prosecution and a maximum penalty of £2,500 (in the case of a criminal fixed penalty)