If rubbish you paid someone to take is later found dumped, St Helens Council can fine you as well as the person who dumped it. Since 1 September 2026 the maximum on-the-spot fine for fly-tipping in England has been £5,000, and a householder who hands waste to an unlicensed collector faces a separate fixed penalty of up to £600.
Householders caught this way often did not dump anything themselves. They paid cash to someone from a social media advert, asked no questions, and the waste was later traced back to their address.
The Householder Duty of Care
Section 34(2A) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 puts a legal duty on the occupier of every home in England. You must take reasonable steps to make sure household waste you hand over only goes to an authorised person. In practice that means a registered waste carrier, the council's own collections, or a recycling centre you take it to yourself.
The duty does not ask you to follow the van. It asks you to check, before the waste leaves, that the person taking it is allowed to. If you did not check and the waste is dumped, that failure is an offence in its own right, whoever did the dumping.
The Fines in 2026
Two different fixed penalties can apply. The fly-tipping maximum was raised five-fold by The Environmental Offences (Fixed Penalties) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026, which came into force on 1 September 2026.
| Offence | Fixed penalty in England | In force from |
|---|---|---|
| Householder duty of care (using an unlicensed collector) | £150 to £600 | 31 July 2023 |
| Fly-tipping (unlawful deposit of waste) | £150 to £5,000 (was up to £1,000) | 1 September 2026 |
| Littering | Up to £750 (was up to £500) | 1 September 2026 |
A fixed penalty is an offer to settle out of court. Cases that go to court can be far more serious: fly-tipping tried in the Crown Court carries up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine or both. Councils and the Environment Agency can also seize a vehicle used for fly-tipping.
When we checked in October 2026, St Helens Council's own fly-tipping page still gave the old £1,000 maximum. The legal maximum in England is now £5,000.
More is coming. The Crime and Policing Act 2026, given Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, adds penalty points on a driving licence for drivers convicted of fly-tipping with a vehicle. That section was not yet in force in October 2026.
What St Helens Council Is Doing
On 6 July 2026 the council announced two more fly-tipping enforcement officers as part of a £300,000 investment in cleaner streets. Since October 2025 it had issued 5 fixed penalty notices and 300 Section 46 notices to people suspected of dumping waste. The average time to clear a reported fly-tip fell from 17 days in spring 2025 to 6 days, with 155 incidents cleared in May 2026 alone.
Three Checks Before Anyone Takes Your Rubbish
The Environment Agency recommends three simple checks, and they are the same ones a council will ask whether you made.
- Check the collector on the Environment Agency public register of waste carriers.
- Ask where the waste is going. A genuine collector can name a licensed site.
- Do not pay cash with no paperwork. Get an invoice or receipt, ideally a waste transfer note, and pay by card or bank transfer.
The same checks apply to any man and van you book for a move, along with insurance and deposit terms. If you would rather the council take it, the St Helens bulky waste collection is the legal low-cost option for a few large items, and our rubbish removal takes everything to licensed sites for larger loads.
If You Get a Letter About Fly-Tipped Waste
Some letters give very little time to reply, and posters on Mumsnet describe Section 33 letters asking for a response within a day or two. Do not ignore one.
- Reply in writing before the deadline, even if only to say you are gathering information.
- Give everything you have about the collector: name, phone number, the advert or social media post, the van registration, messages and any receipt or bank transfer record.
- Say honestly whether you checked the register and asked where the waste was going.
- If you are offered an interview under caution or a fixed penalty you think is wrong, get advice from Citizens Advice or a solicitor before you agree to anything.
Reporting Fly-Tipping in St Helens
You can report fly-tipping to St Helens Council online or by phoning 01744 676789. If you see someone dumping waste as it happens, report it to the police as a crime in progress. Note the location, date and time, a description of the people and the vehicle, its registration if you can see it safely, and what was dumped. The council clears fly-tipping on public land; on private land, clearing it is the landowner's responsibility.
Facts and charges in this guide were checked against the sources linked above on 20 October 2026. Council charges and rules change, so check the linked page before you rely on a figure. More St Helens moving and clearance guides.