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Digital waste tracking in Scotland starts on 1 January 2027. Who is in, the two working days, the £26, and what SEPA says.

Tuesday 27 October 2026. Digital waste tracking in Scotland starts on 1 January 2027, nine weeks from today. Every load of waste a permitted site in Scotland receives from that day must be on Defra’s service by the end of the second working day after it arrives. The first day is New Year’s Day, and that turns out to matter.

Below is every question we have been asked about it, answered from the Scottish regulations and from SEPA, in their words first and ours second.

When does digital waste tracking start in Scotland?

On 1 January 2027. The Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 were made by the Scottish Ministers on 11 March 2026 and “come into force on 1 January 2027”. England and Wales started on 1 October 2026. Northern Ireland starts in January too, says GOV.UK.

If you have read otherwise about Northern Ireland, you may have read it in the Scottish Government’s own impact assessment, which puts it in October with England and Wales. That sentence is right about England and Wales and wrong about Northern Ireland.

Does it cover my yard?

The duty falls on the operator “authorised by permit under” the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018, known as EASR, who receives controlled waste. SEPA gives scrap yards as an example, alongside transfer stations and landfills. The word that decides it is permit. SEPA says a site authorised at registration level is not in phase 1.

If your licence is older than EASR, it has probably moved across. SEPA: “In most cases, existing authorisations automatically move under EASR on 1 November 2025”. Look at what level yours is now. If you cannot tell, ask SEPA in November, not in January.

How long do I have to report each load?

Regulation 4(6): “the end of the second working day after the day on which the load of controlled waste is received by the operator”. The day it arrives does not count. A working day is any day that is not a Saturday or Sunday, not Easter Monday and not a bank holiday in Scotland. SEPA adds the plain version: this applies “even if your facility operates 24/7”.

Scotland’s list is not England’s. England leaves out Christmas Day, Good Friday and English bank holidays. Scotland leaves out Easter Monday and Scottish bank holidays. Put that next to the first day of the duty and New Year does the rest. Friday 1 January is a bank holiday in Scotland, and so is Monday 4 January. The first loads anyone in Scotland must report are due by the end of Wednesday 6 January.

Is there a Scottish system or a Scottish software list?

No. The regulations say a record must be made with software “approved by the designated person”, who is the Scottish Ministers, and that reads like a second list. There is not one. SEPA tells Scottish operators to register on Defra’s service and report through their software or Defra’s spreadsheet, and the GOV.UK software list names Scotland itself. We looked into this in detail in There is no Scottish list. SEPA also says of the spreadsheet that it “may be phased out in the future”.

What does it cost?

Regulation 5: “The digital waste tracking system fee is £26.” It is paid on the first occasion the duty arises and then on each anniversary. GOV.UK says the first payment is due by 31 January 2027. Do not leave it, because regulation 3(5) lets the service withhold your entries until it is paid.

What if the service is down?

Regulation 6 has the steps, and SEPA puts them plainly. Email SEPA as soon as you can, unless Defra has already sent an outage notice. Make a written record of each load within two working days, on paper or on a computer. Keep it. Then enter it into the service “within seven days, beginning the day after the outage is resolved”. A slow tablet at the gate is not an outage. The service being down is.

What if I cannot use a computer at all?

Scotland has a route for that, and it is narrower than it sounds. A digitally excluded operator still has the duty, but makes a written record within two working days and puts a digitally excluded number on it, issued by SEPA under regulation 9. No service and no fee. SEPA says it is for a natural person, “such as a sole trader, and not legal persons such as limited companies”, for whom electronic records are not reasonably practicable, for example because of age, disability or location, or a religious belief. SEPA’s customer service team sends the form on 0300 099 6699.

What if I get a receipt wrong, or do not report at all?

A mistake has a month. Regulation 7(2): “as soon as reasonably practicable and, in any event, within one month of the date on which the operator becomes aware of the error”. The clock starts when you find it, not when you made it.

Not reporting is another matter. Regulation 13: “SEPA must monitor compliance with these Regulations.” Part 5 creates offences, compliance notices and enforcement cost recovery notices, and failing to complete the steps for a load is the first offence on the list.

What to do before January

1. Register the organisation with the company’s login. GOV.UK: “You must not use a personal Government Gateway account for this service”. SEPA says the service is “now open for voluntary use”.
2. Copy the API code from the screen. It appears as soon as the organisation is registered. It is five groups of letters and numbers. England learned in October that a code typed with four groups looks right and bounces every receipt.
3. Book in real loads in December. The first live receipt should not also be your first go.
4. Write the first week on the office wall. Friday and Monday are bank holidays, and Wednesday 6 January is the first night anything can be late.

What BreakerHQ does

BreakerHQ reports to the same Defra service, and yards in England have reported through it every day since 1 October. There is nothing to install and no training to book. Sign in on the phone or tablet you already have, put in your permit number and the Defra code, and you are booking in your first car in under fifteen minutes.

Three honest gaps for a Scottish yard. The screens quote England’s regulation numbers and name the Environment Agency. The carrier check reads England’s public register only, and says so when it cannot find a Scottish carrier. And the transfer note is built on the England and Wales rules, which we have not yet checked against Scotland’s. One thing errs safe: our due-date line counts weekends but not bank holidays, so for a load received on New Year’s Day it shows Tuesday 5 January when the law gives you until Wednesday. Early, never late.

Sign in and start

The duty starts on New Year’s Day, and the first load is not due until the Wednesday. Take the day off. Just know which Wednesday.