Digital Waste Tracking – public beta of Phase 1: equality and human rights impact assessment

Digital Waste Tracking – public beta of Phase 1

25/05/2024

Aleksandra Gardziola-Wadas

Katharine Ludford

Yes – a Data Protection Impact Assessment for the public beta of Phase 1 of the Digital Waste Tracking System.

SEPA is currently working with other environmental regulators and governments from across the UK to implement a mandatory waste tracking digital service. There is new legislation: The Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) 2026 Regulations and similar regulations in the other nations. The UK Government – Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) – are developing a new Digital Waste Tracking System that will be introduced for use throughout the UK as part of the project.

Digital waste tracking will help businesses and government move towards a circular economy by joining up and digitising currently fragmented systems to provide a single comprehensive way of tracking the amount and type of waste being produced and where it ends up.

This will also support the effective regulation of waste, transforming the way environmental regulators monitor compliance, prioritise regulatory activities and help prevent waste crime, including,

• fly tipping

• deliberate misclassification of waste

• illegal waste exports

• the operation of illegal waste sites

It will also facilitate a more level playing field for legitimate waste operators.

The project forms part of the UK government’s wider plans to introduce smarter regulation to grow the economy. Smarter regulation is about improving regulation and guidance for businesses across the board, ensuring it is as clear, proportionate and does not unnecessarily impose burdens on businesses which restrict innovation and growth.

Digital waste tracking will be introduced in phases. Phase 1 will apply to most permitted facilities receiving controlled waste. An in-scope permitted facility under Phase 1 of DWT is any place (subject to one exception, see below) where a waste activity is being carried out under a permit level authorisation and where controlled waste is received. This includes deemed authorisations and new permits under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018. The deemed authorisations cover former licences and permits issued under the former Waste Management Licensing and Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations.

The Scottish Statutory Instrument, The Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (legislation for phase 1), was made on 11 March 2026 by the Scottish Parliament. In Scotland the use of the Digital Waste Tracking System will become mandatory on 1 January 2027; however, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland it will become mandatory in October 2026.

The Regulations provide one exception from the new obligations. The exception will apply to authorisations granted to local authorities where they provide facilities used for the deposit of waste prior to onwards transfer of waste for treatment, recycling or disposal. These facilities include:

• Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) and all waste accepted at these sites. This includes waste brought to the HWRC by members of the public, by contractors working on behalf of the local authority or the local authority themselves or any third-party commercial company which the local authority permits to use the site.

• Transfer stations where waste is bulked up and stored prior to transfer for disposal (e.g. to landfill), recycling, or treatment (e.g. at a materials facility (MF)). These bulking up/storage sites may have machinery to compact and move wastes but should not undertake processing (including segregation), treatment or disposal. This exemption would include any waste brought to such sites from the local authority, contractors working on behalf of the local authority or any third-party commercial waste company which the local authority permits to use the site.

DEFRA has contracted Equal Experts to build the digital system. DEFRA is responsible for upgrades and maintenance of the system and will collect an annual service charge fee of £26 from the users. SEPA has no control on the digital system build, operation or maintenance.

The project is currently in private testing phase; the phase commenced in autumn 2025 and it will continue until 28 April 2026 when public testing will commence.

There will be two ways to submit the data into the Digital Waste Tracking System:

• using the existing software and automatically capturing data through an application programme interface (API)

• submitting data through the form of a spreadsheet

The second option should be used by operators who don’t have/use software.

Phase 1 of the Digital Waste Tracking system will not override or replace any existing obligations relating to the collection, handling or reporting of waste information. At present and for the immediate future after the Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 including the mandatory use of the digital system come in force, there will be no changes to the use the of existing systems.

When the Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 come into force in Scotland in January 2027, provisions have been made for digitally excluded operators to apply to SEPA for a digitally excluded number. All operators of in-scope facilities, including those who are assigned a digitally excluded number, will still be required to maintain written records of required information instead of using the digital system, and to:

• comply with the Duty of Care

• use waste transfer notes, special waste consignment notes, Waste Data Flow

• submit waste data returns to SEPA

• continue using any other reporting systems and/or mechanisms currently in place

During the voluntary DWT public beta test phase, commencing on 28 April 2026, SEPA will receive voluntary notifications from digitally excluded operators.

The in-scope operators will be mandated to use the digital system and comply with the existing requirements. The new phase 1 DWT requirements will be limited to only controlled waste received at the permitted facilities.

Phase 2 will focus on the extension of the system to those arranging all waste movements and transporting waste. It is planned for this phase to become mandatory in October 2027.

The full system, once developed, implemented and robustly tested, will eventually replace existing paper-based waste tracking notes and forms and some other reporting requirements.

SEPA’s Equality Outcomes 2022-2026

• Outcome 1 – We have increased the number of people from currently underrepresented groups in our applicants, our staff and those who progress within the organisation.

• Outcome 2 – People with lived experience of inequality, related to a protected characteristic or socioeconomic status, access and use SEPA’s services without barriers.

• Outcome 3 – Staff with lived experience of inequality and barriers, and with a wide variety of needs, feel listened to and respected as SEPA meets those needs.

• Outcome 4 – We have decreased our gender pay gap and occupational segregation related to gender, disability, and ethnicity.

This relates to Outcome 2, as digitising this service will help SEPA regulate this sector more effectively, which in turn should reduce waste crime and improve the lives of people blighted by illegal waste movement.

The move to sustainable resource use and a circular economy is an important contributor to tackling the climate emergency and improving our environment, it can help grow the economy, by opening up new market opportunities, improving productivity and saving money. Moving towards a circular economy can also contribute to eradicating child poverty through local employment opportunities and access to lower cost options, through reuse and more effective use of resources.

Phase 1 of Digital Waste Tracking will only affect a relatively small number of authorised operators rather than every party involved in all waste movements. Although the in-scope operators will be mandated to use the digital system, they will only be required to submit data related to controlled waste received at the permitted facility.

The data that will be required to be submitted into the digital waste tracking system will be the same as the data specified on the waste transfer notes and special waste consignment notes; and there will be only a few optional additional data fields to be inserted. Information regarding partial or whole rejections, outgoing waste, end of waste data will not be part of phase 1 / will not be required to be recorded on the system (this is not required by the new regulations).

The ways operators will be required to submit the data is explained above. The service will have an impact on some operators who may need to purchase new software (or update existing software) and spend some time to upload the data.

There will be no significant impact on digitally excluded operators. The new obligations for them are explained in question 3.5. They will be required to keep the written records for a minimum of 3 years; currently they are obliged to keep waste transfer notes for 2 years and special waste consignment notes for 3 years.

The new policy will only apply to operators of permitted facilities receiving controlled waste, subject to exception explained in section 2.1 above.

DEFRA has already issued some communications regarding Digital Waste Tracking via their Circular Economy Newsletter and more communications are planned. Information regarding the new policy is available at:

• Digital waste tracking service (on GOV.UK)

• Digital Waste Tracking (Defra)

There was a consultation on Implementation of mandatory digital waste tracking (on GOV.UK). This asked what people thought about our proposals for the practical implementation of digital waste tracking including:

• what waste will be tracked

• what information should be recorded

• when this information should be recorded

• different ways to record the information

• what the enforcement consequences might be if the information isn’t recorded as required

• how we should charge for the operation and maintenance of the waste tracking service

SEPA have established a DWT communications plan to provide information for and support to operators to understand their new obligations and what they need to do to comply. A new Digital Waste Tracking webpage has been created on the SEPA website and a Sharepoint page for SEPA staff. SEPA will be writing a letter to all phase 1 in scope operators to inform them of the launch of the public beta test phase, encouraging operators to get involved in testing and improvement of the digital service, and how operators can voluntarily notify SEPA if they are digitally excluded. The SEPA DWT project team have met with and will continue to meet with and attend waste industry and local authority stakeholder meetings and events to provide updates and guidance on DWT. DWT updates will also be included in the SEPA Business Newsletter.

Discussions with the other environment agencies in the UK, and new legislation.

Scotland's circular economy and waste route map to 2030 - gov.scot

Introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking - Defra's Citizen Space

Implementation of mandatory digital waste tracking - GOV.UK

Digital waste tracking service - GOV.UK

Implementation of mandatory digital waste tracking - GOV.UK

The Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 - GOV.UK

Digital Waste Tracking: business regulatory impact assessment (Section 2. Purpose and Intended Effect) - gov.scot

Amongst your group of stakeholders are there any people who belong to the protected characteristic groups listed below who may be impacted, either positively or negatively, or do you believe there is a neutral impact?

Consider the three needs of the general duty for each Protected Characteristic in turn.

Table 1 - Public Sector Equality Duty Screening tool

If you answer 'Yes' for any of them, go to Section 3.

Human Rights human lives a guide for public authorities

Table 2 - Human Rights consideration

The three elements are:

• Eliminate unlawful conduct

• Advance equality of opportunity

• Foster good relations

Eliminate unlawful conduct

For Phase 1 (public beta), the move to mandatory digital waste tracking is intended to support more consistent and transparent waste regulation over time. However, a digital-first requirement could create a risk of indirect discrimination if it disadvantages people more likely to be digitally excluded.

Advance equality of opportunity

Full end to end digital waste tracking may contribute to improved environmental outcomes by strengthening compliance monitoring and supporting action to prevent illegal waste activity, which can disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities.

Foster good relations

A single UK-wide tracking approach and clearer expectations may help foster good relations by supporting perceptions of fairness and consistency, and by supporting action against waste crime that impacts communities.

• Age

• Disability

• Religion or Belief

In 2022 DEFRA launched a public consultation on the introduction of the mandatory Digital Waste Tracking. The consultation was open to the public from 21 January 2022 until 15 April 2022 and all parties involved in waste movement could take part in it.

Introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking - Defra's Citizen Space

DEFRA and the Scottish Government have also completed their Equality Impact Assessments.

SEPA is working with the other parties to ensure that those who cannot use the digital system can still comply with the new requirements and that alternative ways for meeting their obligations are available to them, aligning with SEPA’s commitment to ensure people with lived experience of inequality can use services without barriers.

The Equality Evidence Finder provided the following information on digital exclusion.

National Statistics and the Lloyds UK Consumer Digital Indexes 2020-2024 provide provisions for digitally excluded in system design; e.g. through the provision of other options, such as telephone and postal services.

Age

Older people are less likely to use the internet at home.

• There are lower rates of internet use among older adults than among younger adults. In 2019, almost all (99%) adults aged 16-24 reported using the internet compared to 43% of those aged 75+. Source: Scottish Household Survey 2019 (last updated: September 2020).

• Of those who are ‘offline’ across the UK (4% in Scotland, 5% in England), around 90% are over 50 years old (58% of these people were 60-69 years old and 29% were 50-59 years old).

• According to the Lloyds UK Consumer Digital Index 2024, the proportion of adults aged 18+ who had the Foundation Level Life EDS was 53% for those aged 75+, as opposed to 96% for those aged 25-34. In terms of the proportion of labour force adults aged 18+, work EDS falls from an 82% average across all age groups, to 75% for those aged 55-64, and 68% for those aged 65-74.

Disability

Disabled adults are less likely to use the internet.

• In 2019, 64 percent of older adults (aged 60-74) with a disability reported using the internet. This was lower than reported internet usage amongst older adults who are non-disabled (85 percent). This disparity in internet usage decreases in younger age groups, with a 7 percentage point difference in usage between 25-34 year olds who are disabled and those who are nondisabled. Source: Scottish Household Survey 2019 (last updated: September 2020).

• 24% of adults in Scotland have a long-term physical or mental health condition. A physical or mental disability may impact on an individual’s capacity to understand and adapt to changes in the process associated with reform of the system. Disabled people are also less likely to be internet users: 29% of adults who have some form of limiting long-term physical or mental health condition or illness do not use the internet, a higher share than for those who have some form of non-limiting condition or illness (10%) and those who have none (6%). This suggests a requirement for suitable forms of non-digital communication. Source: Lloyds UK Consumer Digital Index 2024.

Further information is not currently available on Digital Exclusion relating to religion or belief.

Digital Exclusion

Section 34CA of the Environment Act 2021 defines digitally excluded person as a person:

(a) who is a practising member of a religious society or order whose beliefs are incompatible with using electronic communications or keeping electronic records, or

(b) for whom it is not reasonably practicable to use electronic communications or to keep electronic records for any reason (including age, disability or location).

We have been working with partners to understand how digitally excluded persons interact with the agency at present. Working with teams from across SEPA, we have identified that digital exclusion as defined in the Environment Act 2021 is not something that we currently have any specific policies on and nor is the definition reflected in any other legislation that we regulate. It is difficult to assess how many of our customers that will use the waste tracking service may be digitally excluded.

We have been able to gather some indicative data on the percentage of applications or data submissions made alternative means where an online system exists and would be considered the primary submission route. For instance, we have a fully digital system for receiving registrations from carriers and brokers but 3% of the registrations we receive are made using forms which are either posted or emailed to us. We don’t know why 3% of applicants do not use the online service and therefore cannot draw any conclusions about digital exclusion from our own data. It is important to note that there is a difference between those who are digitally excluded versus those who require some assistance to use digital technology. For example, a person who phones SEPA to ask for help navigating to the correct part of our website or to be talked through a digital process would not be considered to be digitally excluded. Latest data shows that only 6 operators of permitted sites submit quarterly waste data returns via paper form. The reason for the non-digital submission is not known and therefore it cannot be confirmed whether these operators could meet the criteria for digitally excluded operators.

It should be noted that most operators or their employees are able to use computers / digital systems at or outside work, for example when buying road tax, using banking apps, buying insurance, groceries etc.

As phase 1 of Digital Waste Tracking will only apply to permitted facilities, it is estimated that the number of those meeting the digitally excluded operator criteria will be extremely low.

Wider Context

In Exploring the UK’s digital divide (Office for National Statistics, 2019) it is stated that approximately 10% of the adult population in the UK could be considered to be 'internet non-users'.

In a report published in 2022, Ofcom estimated that 6% of UK households do not have internet access.

Summary of work to date

• Investigated current policies for digital exclusion at SEPA.

• Gathered information to try to understand how many regulated businesses may be digitally excluded.

• Worked with other regulators on various aspects of digitally excluded person.

• Consulted with colleagues on equalities and data protection.

The Digital Waste Tracking Regulations will require digitally excluded users to apply to the regulator for a digitally excluded number to be granted an exemption from using the digital system. Upon receipt of the application form, SEPA will assign the digitally excluded number and will inform the person about said number assigned to them.

There will be further obligation on the digitally excluded operator to provide a written notice to SEPA if the operator ceases to be digitally excluded. The operator will be required to use the digital service 28 days after SEPA receives the written notice.

Instead of using the digital system, the digitally excluded operator will be required to:

• make a written record of the specified information about each load of controlled waste received at the permitted facility within three working days, including the day when waste was received by them

• include in the written record their digitally excluded number

• retain the written records for at least 3 years beginning with the date on which the record is made

• if requested by SEPA, make the records available to SEPA as soon as reasonably practicable after the request is made

The Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 will come in force on 1 January 2027.

Operators wishing to get more information on 'digitally excluded' will be able to obtain advice from SEPA during the public beta test phase. They will be able to voluntarily notify SEPA about their digitally excluded status prior to 1 January 2027; the records will be kept securely. The application form for a digitally excluded number will be available from the end of 2026. However, SEPA will be able to issue digitally excluded numbers from 1 January 2027. Each digitally excluded operator will be assigned a unique digitally excluded number.

Digitally excluded operators will be advised about the new obligations (as specified above) and the obligations will be explained in a guidance that will be available for the operators. It should be noted that the submission of data during public testing is optional, it is not mandatory, for all users.

It is our intention that the process to register as digitally excluded for DWT should not be burdensome on the applicant or create unnecessary work for SEPA relative to the risk. The process itself should not contribute to inequality by being inaccessible or onerous. This aim supports one of SEPA’s equality outcome 3 – 'People with lived experience of inequality, related to a protected characteristic or socioeconomic status, access and use SEPA’s services without barrier'.

For Digital Waste Tracking we are focusing on those who are digitally excluded. In recognition of the fact that not all of those who manage waste movements are able to use digital technology, the primary legislation (Environmental Protection Act 1990) which facilitates the implementation of a DWT service requires that secondary legislation includes provisions for digitally excluded persons.

The requirements for non-digital operators of permitted facilities have been considered and their new obligations are explained above. Further considerations have been given to operators who do not have and use software; they will be able to submit data using spreadsheet.

Smaller companies or sole traders may find it difficult to use the system at the beginning as it will be new to them. All in-scope operators from phase 1 can participate in the public testing of the service which will give them insight into it. They will become familiar with it by using it and will find it easier to use over time.

A helpdesk operated by the Environment Agency has been established to help with digital queries. Moreover, any regulatory queries will be sent to and dealt with by SEPA.

SEPA are planning to write to all operators in scope to explain the proposed changes and how to get assistance if required, with the caveat that the public beta is still voluntary at this stage.

Include any further evidence gathering and external engagement that is required to demonstrate that you are giving ‘due regard’ to the equality duty of eliminating discrimination, promoting equality of opportunity, and fostering good relations.

SEPA has developed a DWT comms plan, which includes a dedicated page on the SEPA website where operators can gather more information. The web page will be updated as new guidance is available.

SEPA will also send letters to all in-scope phase 1 operators of permitted facilities to inform them about the new policy, encourage them to sign up to public testing and provide more information about digitally excluded. This will allow us to gain more information about the potential number of digitally excluded operators and form additional actions and engagement if/when required.

Having considered the actual and potential impacts, you can decide what needs to happen next. There are four options, select the one that is appropriate to your findings and provide any supporting information you have for that decision.

Option 1: No major change

Your assessment demonstrates that the policy or practice is robust. The evidence shows no potential for:

• Less favourable treatment of particular groups, indirect discrimination, victimisation, harassment, and that you have taken all opportunities to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations; nor

• Restriction of Convention rights or freedoms.

The policy or practice builds in reasonable adjustments where these may be needed. In reaching this conclusion, you should document the reasons why and the evidence used to support your decision.

The Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment is a living document and should be reviewed and updated to ensure you have captured the changes that have been made because of the implementation of your policy or practice. Set a realistic goal for you to check back in with your assessment, to see if things are going the way you expected.

Date for the Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment review.

01/11/2026

31/03/2026

Yes – Katherine Ludford 23/04/26