The £26 Digital Waste Tracking charge: who pays it, when, and what it covers

If you run a permitted waste site in England or Wales, you pay the government £26 a year to use the Digital Waste Tracking service (DEFRA's online system for recording every load of waste a site takes in). It's charged once for each organisation on your account, and that one payment covers every receiving site the organisation runs. The first payment is due by 31 January 2027.

You pay the same £26 however many loads you log. Producers (the businesses whose waste it is) don't pay it, and carriers aren't charged under the rules in force today. Any software you use to send your records is billed separately, by whoever supplies it.

Who pays the £26

The person who pays is the operator of a permitted site, which means whoever holds the environmental permit. The England regulations put the duty to pay on that operator, and the Welsh regulations do the same for sites in Wales. Both set the figure at £26.

GOV.UK's guidance adds the detail that matters in practice. The charge is per organisation on your account, and one payment covers all the receiving sites that organisation has. A company with three transfer stations pays £26 in total. A group that puts two separate companies on one account pays £26 for each company.

The government's response to its consultation set out who doesn't pay. The charge falls on those who create or edit records. A producer who only confirms details someone else entered for them pays nothing, and nor does anyone who only looks at records they were part of.

When it's due

The first payment is due by 31 January 2027. After that, the regulations make the fee payable each year on the anniversary of the date your duty to report first began.

If you register partway through the year, you still pay the full £26. GOV.UK says so in as many words, so there's no saving in joining late.

Sites in Scotland and Northern Ireland come into the service from January 2027, under their own rules. The England and Wales regulations described here don't cover them.

What happens if you don't pay

The England regulations let the service hold back your records until the fee is paid. They also say an unpaid fee is no excuse when a record you were meant to send never went in. So an unpaid fee leaves your records stuck while the duty to send them still stands.

Costs it gets confused with

Three other costs get mixed up with the £26.

• Your software subscription. If you send records through a software provider, what they charge you is separate. The £26 goes to the government whichever way you report.
• Your waste carrier registration. Registering as a carrier, broker or dealer with the Environment Agency is a separate obligation, and it carries on unchanged.
• Hazardous waste consignee return fees. If your site takes hazardous waste, you still send consignee returns (the quarterly report of the hazardous waste you received, treated or disposed of). Those are charged per consignment, £10 for a single consignment sent electronically, and GOV.UK says the charges still apply alongside the £26.

How the figure was set

When the government consulted, it suggested a flat fee of about £20 a year to cover the running costs of the service. The figure in the regulations is £26. Either way, it's kept low on purpose, to pay for running the service while staying affordable for small sites.

What it means for carriers

Carriers, brokers and dealers join the service from October 2027. The regulations in force today don't charge them anything, because the duty to report sits with the receiving site. The government's stated principle is that whoever creates or edits records pays the charge, and carriers will be creating records in their phase. So expect a charge of the same kind when that phase begins, but the rules for it aren't written yet.

If you run a receiving site, our post on what changed for receiving sites in October 2026 covers the rest of the duty, and the two-working-day rule covers how long you have to log each load.

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CarrierNote logs a load at the gate and sends the receipt to DEFRA for you, on every plan, including the free one. The £26 is the government's charge, and it stays the same whichever software you use. See how it works at carriernote.co.uk/receiving-sites.

Sources

• The Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026 No. 729). Regulation 4(3) puts the duty to pay on the operator, regulation 5 sets the £26 fee and the anniversary, and regulation 3(5) lets the service hold back records until the fee is paid
• The Digital Waste Tracking (Wales) Regulations 2026 (WSI 2026 No. 105), regulation 5, which sets the same £26 fee for Welsh sites
• Report receipt of waste, GOV.UK guidance, updated 25 September 2026: the charge per organisation, the first payment date, and the full fee for a late registration
• Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive, GOV.UK guidance, updated 25 September 2026: consignee returns continue, and their charges still apply
• Government response to the consultation on mandatory digital waste tracking, DEFRA: who pays, who doesn't, and the original figure of about £20
• Hazardous waste: consignee returns, GOV.UK: who sends them, the quarterly deadlines and the fee per consignment
• Digital waste tracking service, DEFRA policy paper: the phase dates for each nation