The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)

My Lords, these draft regulations were laid before the House on 23 April 2026. The introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking is a cornerstone of this Government’s Waste Crime Action Plan, which is the toughest ever crackdown on illegal waste activity and aims both to transform the waste management system and to target the problem at its core. Requiring near real-time information about waste movements to be recorded on a centralised system will enable the Environment Agency to identify unusual patterns, pinpoint high-risk operators, intervene earlier and shape targeted initiatives, supporting a shift from reactive investigation to proactive prevention. The current system already requires that accurate documentation accompanies transfers of waste between those handling it, but problems with this system leave it open to abuse by criminals and make it easy for them to undercut responsible operators and harm our environment. The first problem is that regulatory officers do not routinely see the individual documents. The current legal requirements mean that information is collated and sent to the Environment Agency only every quarter. This delay makes it impossible for officers to identify problems proactively. If regulators need to see individual waste records for an investigation, they usually need to request them through the serving of legal notices. This is time-consuming and provides an opportunity for documents to be altered prior to submission, frustrating any investigation. The second issue is the confusion created by requiring different records depending on whether the waste is hazardous or non-hazardous. The non-hazardous waste system in particular, where records are required between each of two parties, rather than one record for the end-to-end journey, makes it impractical for waste producers to check where their waste has ended up and who has handled it. It also makes it extremely difficult for regulators to conduct cradle-to-grave audits or hold waste producers to account, because there are no legal requirements to connect the documents to each other. Finally, although many operators do their best to complete these documents, they are undercut by those who do not—those who think that “muck” is an accurate waste description or that a partial postcode for the source of waste is acceptable. These issues have provided the opportunities for organised waste criminals to thrive and cost our economy £1 billion a year through fly-tipping, illegal waste sites, illegal exports or misdescribing waste in order to avoid paying landfill tax. That is why we are introducing these regulations, which are the crucial first step in transforming the waste industry so that regulators have timely data on the movements of waste from production to disposal. This first set of regulations mandates waste receivers operating under an environmental permit to make a digital record of waste that comes into their facilities and to submit that information on the digital waste tracking system within two working days of the waste being received. A second instrument will be laid next year to extend the requirements to capture the full end-to-end waste journey information. This is one of the most transformative changes to the waste sector in decades, and will bring its practices into the digital age. Before I turn to the detail of the legislation, I would like to acknowledge the work of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. The committee’s report highlighted a point of interest regarding how digital waste tracking would interact with the new extended producer responsibility for packaging scheme. Once fully implemented, the data submitted to the digital waste-tracking system about waste movements will provide elements of the data required to underpin that new scheme and will help reduce opportunities for fraud. I turn to the details of the legislation. The regulations designate the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to establish, maintain and operate the digital system. They also require permitted waste receivers to make digital records of specified information, as set out in Schedule 1, before submitting it on to the system. There is a requirement for operators to pay an annual fee of £26, which will be used to recoup the costs of establishing, operating and maintaining the system. There are alternative provisions for those who are digitally excluded. Digitally excluded persons are those for whom it is not reasonably practical to use electronic communications or to keep electronic records for any reason; this could be due to age, disability or religious beliefs. The alternative requirements include obtaining a digitally excluded number from the Environment Agency and keeping written records, as well as a requirement to supply these records to the Environment Agency if requested. The regulations introduce a new offence of failing to comply with the legislation. They also make provision for both criminal penalties and civil sanctions. Criminal sanctions are necessary to enable the Environment Agency to effectively punish repeat offenders and ensure that the new system is not undermined by unscrupulous operators. These regulations are truly transformative. The introduction of a digital system where information about waste movements can be shared and viewed by those who need to see it in a timely way will undoubtedly benefit us all. I beg to move.