Record every load you receive, and send it to DEFRA on time.

1. Producerhands the load over
2. Carrierbrings it to your gate
3. Receiving sitelogs it, checked against DEFRA’s rules
4. Sent to DEFRAwithin two working days

What changed on 1 October 2026

• Every load received must be recorded on DEFRA’s Digital Waste Tracking Service within two working days of the day after it arrives.
• Mistakes must be corrected within one month of becoming aware of them.
• In England and Wales a breach carries a £1,000 fixed penalty.
• Scotland follows from 1 January 2027, and Northern Ireland is working to the same date.
• The duty lands on the site receiving the waste, not on the producer, and not yet on the carrier, whose phase is expected in October 2027.
• Waste transfer notes and quarterly consignee returns continue. Digital waste tracking sits alongside them; it does not replace them.

Every figure above is taken from the regulations as made, not from announcements. Our post on the 1 October duty walks through who it applies to and cites each one.

What you get

Logging a load

• Log it at the gate or at the weighbridge, by weight or by container volume. Your site name, permit number and address are filled in from your settings, not retyped per load.
• The waste code is picked from all 842 codes in DEFRA’s catalogue, reconciled against DEFRA’s live service with no differences, so a retired or mistyped code cannot get through.
• Photograph the paperwork the driver hands over. It is attached to the receipt as evidence and kept with what was filed.
• Carrier registration numbers are checked for the right format as you type, and the form says what is missing before you send.

After it is sent

• The two-working-day clock runs per load, in UK time, and the list shows what is due, what is sent and what DEFRA accepted.
• If DEFRA’s service is busy or unavailable the send waits and retries; the load stays queued until it lands, and an outage is never reported back to you as your mistake.
• Corrections are never refused. A receipt DEFRA already hold can be corrected and sent again from the same record.
• Export your receipts to CSV whenever you need them.

The duties that continue

• Quarterly consignee returns, built from your consignment notes and the hazardous waste receipts logged at each site. A load with both is counted once, from the note. Anything a line still needs, such as the producer’s postcode, is listed before you send it, and a return that no longer matches its receipts cannot be marked as sent until it is generated again.
• Duty Watch: the rule changes that affect a permitted site, as regulators publish them.

On the phone, at the gate

• Log a load on the DutyOS app for iPhone as it arrives at the gate. You sign in with your company’s DutyOS account.
• No signal in the yard? What you save is kept on the phone and reaches the office by itself when the signal is back.
• A load saved as a draft on the phone can be finished at the desk.

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Getting started

1. Register your site with DEFRA. The Digital Waste Tracking Service charges £26 a year per permit-holding company and issues the API code every receipt is filed under. The first payment is not due until 31 January 2027, so there is nothing to pay to get started. Only the permit holder can register; we cannot do it for you.
2. Create your DutyOS account as a receiving site. It takes a minute, and the first 7 days are free.
3. Enter your permit number, site address and DEFRA API code once, on the Permitted site page.
4. Log your first load. From then on, every load received is recorded, checked and sent, and the clock is visible on every one.

Pricing

From £19.99 + VAT a month, after 7 days free. One membership covers every permitted site your plan allows. Four plans (Solo £19.99 · Site £29.99 · Team £59.99 · Site Pro £99.99) that differ only in how many permitted sites they cover (1 permitted site, up to 3 permitted sites, up to 5 permitted sites, unlimited permitted sites). Every plan has every feature and unlimited people. The Site plan at £29.99 is the one most sites take. No commission on any work, no contract, cancel any time. Prices exclude VAT, which is added at 20% when you pay. DEFRA’s £26 registration fee is separate and paid to them, first due by 31 January 2027. Full pricing.

Common questions

Is the free GOV.UK service enough for us?

It might be. DEFRA’s portal is free, and a site receiving a handful of loads a week can key them in by hand. DutyOS is for the site that would rather the checks, the clock and the evidence were done for it. The pricing page sets out exactly what that buys.

We are a carrier, not a site. Does this apply to us?

Not from 1 October 2026. That phase binds the site receiving the waste. Carriers keep their transfer notes and duty-of-care records as today, and DutyOS covers those on the carrier plans.

What if DEFRA’s service goes down?

Your load is recorded here the moment you log it, and the send waits until DEFRA’s service accepts it. The two-working-day clock keeps running either way, so the list shows you what is still to land.

We run more than one permitted site.

One membership covers them, up to your plan’s allowance; Site Pro covers any number. If you run a group and want to talk it through, email us.