Digital Waste Tracking: business regulatory impact assessment

18. Enforcement, Sanctions and Monitoring

189. In Scotland, SEPA will be the enforcing body for the mandatory use of a digital waste tracking system. Offences which are created under the Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026 will be added to the “relevant offences” in the Environmental Regulation (Enforcement Measures) (Scotland) Order 2015 in advance of the 2026 Regulations coming into force, providing SEPA with the relevant powers to impose civil sanctions in relation to any offences under the 2026 Regulations.

190. A person who commits an offence under the 2026 Regulations (by failing to comply with the requirements of those regulations) will be liable:

• on conviction on indictment, to a fine,
• on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.

191. There are also provisions incorporated relating to offences by bodies corporate and offences by Scottish partnerships, or unincorporated associations, setting out the circumstances in which individuals of such an entity may also be guilty of the offence in addition to that entity. Similar offences will also be reflected in the equivalent regulations of the other three nations of the UK, and enforced by the equivalent regulator.

192. The impact of the Waste Tracking policy will be monitored on an ongoing basis and the regulatory measures will be evaluated in a UK-wide post implementation review (PIR). The PIR will aim to analyse data captured through the Waste Tracking service, and data gathered through stakeholder engagement and calls for evidence to assess:

• The impact of Waste Tracking on waste crime. The specific data we will look to gather to support the PIR will be the estimated number, and scale, of illegal waste sites, illegal waste exports and waste operators in operation following the implementation of the reform. We will also review the amount of different wastes that are reported (trends in hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste) and data on waste landfilled under different tax rates to understand the benefits of a Waste Tracking service in reducing misclassification of waste.
• The impact of Waste Tracking on legitimate businesses. We are interested in the impact on legitimate businesses, specifically how much additional tonnage of waste they handle following the implementation of the reform, the number of new businesses joining the market, the extent of time savings incurred as a result of the policy, and any additional cost burdens that operators may have incurred.
• Diversion of materials away from landfill/incineration and the improvement in the supply of critical raw materials. We will review the flows of material that end up in landfill/incineration and that are sent for recycling/reuse following the implementation of Waste Tracking, and compare this to historical data.
• Efficiency savings for regulators. We will engage with the regulators to understand the extent to which they have benefited from efficiency savings as a result of holding waste data digitally (and in a central system for Option 3).

193. The evaluation will be designed to address the following questions:

• Outcomes: What difference (if any) did the measures make?
• Mechanisms, Contexts and Attribution: Why did observed changes occur?
• How were the activities delivered, and what can we learn?
• Economic evaluation: Did the benefits justify the costs?