British holidaymakers heading to beaches across the UK this summer face being fined up to £2,500 for breaking a legal rule. While it’s common to take a picnic to the beach and enjoy a drink or two on the sand, it’s important to tidy up all of your rubbish before you leave as dropping litter is illegal in the UK. Littering on UK beaches is a criminal offence under section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act but it is often handled through fixed penalty notices (FPNs) that are issued by local councils.
Local councils have the power to define the level of fine that applies in their area, but these are typically up to £150. But if you refuse or fail to pay these fines you can then be ordered to attend magistrates court and if prosecuted you can be fined up to a maximum of £2,500.
Parliament UK explains: “Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 makes dropping litter a criminal offence subject to a fine of up to £2,500 on summary conviction in court.”
The law applies to litter dropped on all land that is open to the air, including beaches, even if the land is privately owned. It also extends to waters, such as lakes, streams and rivers, which may be relevant to some beaches.
Keep Britain Tidy adds: “Dropping litter is illegal. People who drop litter can be fined or face prosecution in court. Authorised officers have the power to issue a fixed penalty charge of up to £150 for a litter offence, as an alternative to prosecution. If the offender is prosecuted and convicted in court, the fine could rise to £2,500.”
Kingdom Local Authority Support (LAS), a leading environmental enforcement firm, warns that litter is a growing problem on UK beaches – with cigarette butts being the biggest contributor – and people who leave their rubbish behind risk running up huge fines this summer.
John Roberts, Chief Services Officer of Kingdom LAS, warned: “There needs to be a cultural change to litter. It has often been described as a civil offence – but it is not. If a person is found to be littering, they could face a fine of up to £2500. This is a criminal offence.”
Research from Keep Britain Tidy found more than two million items of litter are being dropped on the streets every day in the UK, at a cost of more than £1 billion per year to taxpayers for cleaning it up.
On many UK beaches, cigarette butts constitute the most common littered item found and are something that beach clean ups can’t keep up with. More widely, 60% of the litter collected clean ups consist of single-use plastic items, according to the Marine Conservation Society (MSC).
Kingdom LAS warns that the issue has been growing out of control for many years and it is only getting worse. The amount of plastic rubbish found on beaches in the UK has increased by nearly 10%, according to the MSC.
More than 15,000 volunteers picked up three quarters of a million pieces of litter across beaches in the UK in 2024, a 9.5% increase compared with beach cleans in 2023. Whilst most of the litter came from the public, there was also a good deal of fly-tipping on public beaches too.
Cigarette butts are primarily plastic, and leak chemicals including nicotine, ethyl phenol and heavy metals into the sea when they break down, causing considerable damage to marine life.
Mr Roberts added: “People litter for a variety of reasons, such as not properly understanding the impact it has on the environment, not caring to properly carry away their waste and dispose of it properly, and many people may think that a cigarette butt is too small to impact our beaches and marine life.
“But the impact the millions of pieces of litter – whether big or small – has on our beaches and ocean is immense. If you are going to the beach this summer, it is your responsibility to take your rubbish away from the beach and dispose of it properly. If not, you won’t just be harming the environment, but you could get slapped with a fixed penalty notice of up to £150.”