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Incomplete waste transfer notes result in penalties for Glasgow and Lochgelly waste companies

Tough Construction Limited and Robert Purvis Plant Hire Limited were each given a fixed monetary penalty (FMP) after the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) discovered that waste transfer notes related to 91 movements of controlled waste from a housing development in Falkirk had not been completed correctly. 

Waste transfer notes ensure that there is a clear audit trail from when waste is produced until disposal - providing an accurate record that enables regulators to track waste movements and check waste has been handled legally.  

A waste transfer note should provide essential information on the type and quantity of waste, where it originated from, and where it will be disposed of or treated. Any person who produces, keeps or manages controlled waste or has control of it as a broker or dealer, or carriers must complete accurate waste transfer notes and make them available on request. 

Calum McGregor, of SEPA’s Environmental Crime Team said: 

“Regulating the movement of waste is essential to ensure that it is taken to an appropriate disposal or treatment site and to prevent waste crime. Waste transfer notes are vital to tracking who has handled waste at every stage of the journey and how it has ultimately been disposed of, which is why they must be filled in accurately. 

“This penalty should be a reminder to any business or individual working in the waste management industry that it is your responsibility to ensure you are compliant with your duty of care. That includes ensuring your staff understand what is required when completing required documentation.” 

Details of the offences

Of the 91 waste transfer notes checked the following essential information was missing: 

• Two did not include the date of the waste transfer. 
• 58 did not include the quantity of waste being transferred. 
• 69 did not adequately describe the place of transfer.  
• 73 contained insufficient detail of the waste type, composition and quantity.  

None of the transfer notes included: 

• The correct name of the transferor – it was either omitted or incomplete  
• The address of the transferor.  
• The postcode of the place of transfer. 
• If the transferor was the producer or importer of the waste.  
• The appropriate six-digit code in the European Waste Catalogue.  
• The Standard Industrial Classification code (SIC code) that describes the business activity that produced the waste. 

Evidence gathered by SEPA revealed that Tough Construction Limited had been contracted by the housing developer to undertaken groundworks and had therefore produced the controlled waste removed from site. The transfer notes were completed by Robert Purvis Plant Hire Limited, the company collecting the waste at the time of each transaction, before being signed by both parties.  

Civil penalties

SEPA can issue FMPs for a specified offence - they are not available for all offences. FMPs are normally appropriate where an offence has not caused environmental harm or has caused minimal environmental harm with no lasting environmental effects or impacts on communities, for administrative offences and where little (if any) financial benefit arises from the offence. 

They sit alongside other enforcement tools available to SEPA staff, including advice and guidance, final warning letters, statutory enforcement notices, other civil penalties, including Variable Monetary Penalties (VMPs) and reports to the Procurator Fiscal.  

SEPA’s enforcement action is designed to secure compliance with regulatory requirements, protecting and improving the environment. It aims to bring activity under regulatory control, stop offending, stop harm or reduce the risk of harm arising from non-compliance. It is also designed to ensure restoration or remediation of harm caused by regulatory non-compliance where appropriate.  

Notes to Editors

• Advice on waste transfer notes and how to complete them is available from NetRegs
• Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (“the Act”) imposes a number of duties with respect to the management of controlled waste. These duties apply to any person who produces, keeps or manages controlled waste or, as a broker or dealer, has control of it. Any person subject to the duty under Section 34 must take reasonable measures to comply with those duties.
• Section 34(5) of the Act enables the Scottish Ministers to make regulations imposing requirements on a person subject to a duty under Section 34(1) of that Act, as respects the making and retention of certain documents, and the furnishing of documents or copies of documents. The Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) (Scotland) Regulations 2014 (“the Regulations”) are made in exercise of that power. The Regulations impose various requirements on persons transferring and receiving controlled waste.
• It is an offence under Section 34(6) of the Act to fail, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement in the Regulations.
• SEPA is satisfied that Tough Construction Limited, being the transferor of controlled waste failed, without reasonable excuse, to complete transfer notes in the form required by Regulation 3 of the Regulations between 02 August 2022 to 04 August 2022 at the site of a housing development on Etna Road, Falkirk and therefore committed an offence under Section 34(6) of the Act.
• SEPA is satisfied that Robert Purvis Plant Hire Limited, being the transferee of controlled waste failed, without reasonable excuse, to complete transfer notes in the form required by Regulation 3 of the Regulations between 02 August 2022 to 04 August 2022 at the site of a housing development on Etna Road, Falkirk and therefore committed an offence under Section 34(6) of the Act.
• The level of FMPs is set out in The Environmental Regulation (Enforcement Measures) (Scotland) Order 2015 which provides SEPA with the power to issue penalties and accept undertakings for relevant environmental offences.
• SEPA’s Enforcement policy and Guidance on the use of enforcement action underpins decision-making in relation to enforcement action.
• The Lord Advocate’s guidelines to SEPA also supports enforcement decision making. Where SEPA is considering issuing monetary penalties or accepting a voluntary undertaking, the Guidelines provide a framework for deciding whether SEPA may take such action, or whether the case should instead be referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for consideration of prosecution.
• Whilst penalties are initially paid to SEPA (which also undertakes debt recovery on unpaid penalties), article 12 of the Environmental Regulation (Enforcement Measures) (Scotland) Order 2015 provides that where SEPA receives such sums, they must be paid to the Scottish Ministers. It is understood that Scottish Ministers put such sums to the Scottish Consolidated Fund.