The Act Commentary on Sections Part 5: Waste Section 37 Enforcement powers
130.Section 37 substitutes section 5 of the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989 with new sections 5 and 5A. The principal effect is to enable a constable or an authorised officer of a regulation authority (i.e. the Environment Agency or a waste collection authority) to stop, search and seize a vehicle that he reasonably believes is being used in the commission of an offence under section 1 of that Act (transporting controlled waste without being registered).
131.Section 5 sets out the powers of an authorised officer or a constable in relation to such a vehicle and its contents. Only a constable in uniform may stop a vehicle on the road. A vehicle or its contents which are seized by a constable in the presence of an authorised officer of a regulation authority are seized on behalf of that authority; where the constable is acting alone then the vehicle or contents seized are seized on behalf of the waste collection authority in whose area the seizure takes place.
132.Section 5(7) re-enacts the offence under the previous section 5 of failing to comply with a requirement to produce authority for transporting controlled waste; it also creates new offences of failing to assist or otherwise obstructing an authorised officer or constable.
133.Section 5(9) gives the authorised officer or constable a power to require any occupant of the vehicle to give his name and address, or that of the registered owner of the vehicle, or any other information he may reasonably request. By section 5(10) it is an offence to fail to give such information or to give information which is knowingly or recklessly false or misleading, punishable by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5,000).
134.Section 5A empowers the appropriate person (the Secretary of State in relation to England and the National Assembly for Wales in relation to Wales) to make regulations specifying how a regulation authority must deal with vehicles or their contents seized under section 5, and to issue guidance to a regulation authority in relation to its performance of its functions under such regulations.