Digital Waste Tracking: Phase 1 and Phase 2 Dates Explained
Published · updated
Read this first
Digital tracking doesn’t replace the paper. GOV.UK is clear that waste transfer notes, Annex VII forms and hazardous waste consignment notes all continue alongside the digital service. Anyone telling you paper dies in October is wrong.
There’s genuine confusion about Defra’s Digital Waste Tracking Service. Here’s the current position, sourced directly from GOV.UK.
The two-phase system, explained
Phase 1
Waste receiving sites
Permitted and licensed sites that receive waste, transfer stations, skip yards, anywhere with a weighbridge and a permit.
England & Wales: 1 October 2026
Scotland and Northern Ireland follow in January 2027.
Phase 2
Carriers, brokers & dealers
Anyone registered to carry, broker or deal in waste, including man-and-van operators.
All nations: October 2027
The service has already been open in public beta since 28 April 2026. Sites can register now, ahead of the mandatory date, before there’s any penalty for getting it wrong.
Why the gap matters
Sites are up first. If you run a permitted site, this isn’t a future problem. It’s a this-October problem. Registering now, during the beta, costs nothing extra and means October isn’t the first time you’ve used the system.
Carriers have over a year. There’s no legal reason to panic. But the sites you deliver to will likely want digital-friendly paperwork well before their own deadline forces the issue, because whoever’s on the weighbridge would rather read a clean record than a wet paper pad. That was true before this regulation and it’ll stay true after it. Getting comfortable with a digital format now is a head start, not an obligation.
What Phase 1 sites actually have to do
Three ways to submit
By hand through GOV.UK’s portal, by spreadsheet (a temporary concession, expected to last until at least October 2027), or by API.
What’s recorded
Per movement: EWC code, SIC code, a movement reference number, origin, destination, treatment outcome.
What it costs
£26 a year per legal entity that creates or edits records, once mandatory. GOV.UK’s charge, not a software cost.
GOV.UK maintains a list of software providers who’ve passed its Production Approval Tests, 14 scenarios each has to handle correctly, currently more than 70 names long. GOV.UK is clear it isn’t an endorsement: buying software is at your own risk. Worth checking before you commit to anything, including me. QuickWasteNote isn’t on that list.
If you’re a carrier reading this
Nothing here is legally mandatory for you until October 2027, well over a year away. Nobody should be telling you otherwise to manufacture urgency that isn’t there.
What is worth doing: keep an eye on how the sites you use most are handling the switch this October, because their new process becomes your new process by proxy, deadline or not.
Sources: GOV.UK: Digital waste tracking guidance, GOV.UK: Digital Waste Tracking Service, Environment Agency blog. Checked August 2026.
Questions
When do waste carriers actually need to go digital? +
From October 2027, across all UK nations. This date is sometimes reported as April 2027, which is incorrect.
Do I need to buy software for digital waste tracking? +
No. GOV.UK’s own portal is free to use by hand. Software, such as an API connection, is only needed if you want records created automatically rather than entered manually.
What happens if a Phase 1 site isn’t ready by 1 October 2026? +
It becomes a legal requirement under the Digital Waste Tracking Regulations 2026, enforced by the same regulator that already issues your permit. There’s no published penalty schedule yet, so treat the legal requirement as reason enough rather than waiting to find out what enforcement looks like in practice.
Is the £26 registration charge per site or per company? +
Per legal entity, not per site. One company running several permitted sites pays it once for that entity, not once per weighbridge.