Fly-tipping in Sunderland council area: incidents, enforcement and fines

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, Sunderland had the 37th highest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 11 ranked councils in the North East, it had the 4th highest rate. The count was almost unchanged on 2023/24 (9,552), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 11 councils in the North East and the 269 in England that count all incidents. In England, 26 councils that count only some incidents or changed how they count during the year, and 1 with no figure, are left out. The enforcement figures also leave out 4 councils that returned no actions or only part of a year: Isles of Scilly, Cheltenham, Chorley and Liverpool.

Back alleyways accounted for the most incidents in Sunderland (3,661, 39%). 5% of incidents were on highways, against 33% across England. 113 were on private or residential land (1.2%; England 1.1%).

Compared with England, a larger share was on agricultural land (0.8% against 0.3%) and council land (29.8% against 18.4%).

The most common kind of waste was other household waste, in 4,392 incidents (46%; England 44%). Relative to England, Sunderland had a larger share of other electrical items (3.9% against 1.7%). Hazardous waste: 4 incidents involved asbestos and 1 incident involved clinical waste.

Tyres were dumped in 88 incidents. The waste type was not identified for 15% of incidents.

36% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 55% were van loads (England 43%). 877 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (9.3%; England 3.7%): 666 tipper lorry loads and 211 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 4,411 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 46.5 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, the North East 33.5). The most common action was warning letters (2,934, 67% of all actions; England 13%). It issued 95 fixed penalty notices (2.2% of its actions; England 8.4%): 40 for fly-tipping itself, 9 to householders who passed waste to an unlicensed carrier (household duty of care) and 46 of other kinds.

There were 16 prosecutions, and courts issued 14 fines totalling £5,340 and 1 community sentence was given. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, Sunderland had the 114th highest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 85th lowest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in Sunderland in each year from 2019/20 to 2024/25, with Defra's England total. The rate was above the England total's in every one of those 6 years. It starts in 2019/20, the first year for which Defra records how each council counts incidents.

Councils record fly-tipping in different ways and some have changed how they record it, so a rise or fall can reflect recording as well as dumping.

Of the 11 councils in the North East ranked for 2024/25, Newcastle upon Tyne had the highest rate (52.2 per 1,000) and County Durham the lowest (9.8). Hartlepool is listed but not ranked: ranks cover only councils that count all incidents, with 100 or more in the year.

About these figures: source, Defra, fly-tipping statistics for England, local authority table (published 25 February 2026), gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. An incident is an illegal deposit of waste that a council dealt with or had reported to it, from a single black bag to multiple lorry loads; councils return the figures to Defra through WasteDataFlow each quarter.

Most fly-tipping on private land is cleared by the landowner and is not counted, and the largest and most organised dumping is dealt with by the Environment Agency, which is not included. Since 2019/20 Defra has recorded whether each council counts all incidents or only those reported by the public or found by its own staff. Councils that count only some incidents record fewer, so they, and councils that changed how they count during the year, are not ranked here. Sizes are recorded for the incidents a council investigated and cleared, so they can add up to fewer than all incidents.

Enforcement actions include investigations, warning letters, fixed penalty notices and prosecutions; court fine figures exclude fixed penalty payments. Rates are per resident, so council areas where many people work or visit but few live, such as central London, have high rates for that reason.

Rates use the population in Defra's table (ONS mid-year estimates). Defra's England total includes every council and its estimates for missing returns. On this page the England and region comparisons add up only the councils that count all incidents, and their enforcement figures leave out councils that returned no actions or only part of a year, as the ranks do; the chart's England line is Defra's total.