There has been a drastic drop in direct enforcement action by the Land Department since the Labour Party was returned to government, recent statistics show.

More enforcement action used to be carried out in a month by the department than it is now doing in an entire year. Figures tabled in Parliament show the department only conducted 25 enforcement actions throughout last year. This year, the department intervened to remove abuse on government land only six times between January and May.

In contrast, the same department would conduct an average of 170 enforcement actions per year between 2008 and 2012.

Speaking to Times of Malta, a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister said direct action was used as a last resort, but the department’s enforcement officers were working on a daily basis despite “the very limited human and financial resources of the department”.

It is only when the infringement persists that an eviction order is issued since the focus is on voluntary compliance.

“The current direction of the depart­­­ment is to try to achieve as much as possible [through] voluntary compliance as this would save a lot in terms of human and financial resources,” the OPM said.

More on Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.