Consultation outcome

Response document summary: Charge proposals for reducing waste crime and updating time and materials charges

Updated 1 July 2025

This is a summary of the consultation response. The full response can be found on the consultation page.

• Time and materials and medium combustion plant: overview of feedback and our response

• Waste exemptions: overview of feedback and our response

Introduction

We charge the businesses we regulate for the work we do to regulate them. We are committed to making sure our charges are fair and transparent. To achieve this, we recently consulted on proposals to introduce new and updated charges for our waste activities and hourly rates from July 2025.

The proposed changes were designed to recover the full cost of chargeable services that we provide. We want to reduce poor performance in the waste sector by increasing our enforcement presence, and to stop illegal activities that undercut legitimate businesses.

In our consultation we proposed to:

• introduce charges for waste exemptions
• introduce a waste crime levy on certain waste permits
• introduce a fee for intervention at sites operating illegally
• adjust our hourly rates to fully recover costs, and introduce new rates to cover unfunded work

Our charge proposals are designed to fund regulatory work targeting waste crime. We also proposed changes to our time and materials charges (hourly rates) for a range of sectors. The consultation asked 32 questions inviting respondents to share their views on these proposals.

This response document addresses the feedback we received and summarises our decisions for waste exemptions, time and materials (hourly rate) and medium combustion plant charges.

Our responses to key points identified within the feedback are set out in separate pages as part of the consultation response:

• waste exemptions: overview of feedback and our response
• time and materials, and medium combustion plant: overview of feedback and our response

Detailed summaries of the responses for each question for waste exemptions, time and materials (hourly rate) and medium combustion plant are included in Annex 1 of the consultation response.

We are still considering the feedback we received about our proposals for the waste crime levy and fee for intervention. Our response to these sections of the consultation will be published at a later date.

How we ran the consultation

The consultation ran for 10 weeks from 11 November 2024 to 20 January 2025. It was hosted on GOV.UK and our consultations website (Citizen Space). It was open to anybody to take part. Those who prefer to respond by email or post were able to request a copy of the consultation document and response form instead of responding online.

We notified ministers of our intention to consult and ran the consultation in line with the consultation principles guidelines.

We contacted nearly 75,000 customers including all current waste exemption holders and those that would be affected by the waste crime levy proposal. It was important for us to give our customers the opportunity to understand the proposals and the impact they will have. We wanted to make sure our customers had sufficient information to be able to respond to the consultation. 

We also contacted the organisations that represent members affected by the proposals, including organisations representing agriculture, waste and various non-government organisations. 

We held sessions with the agricultural sector to explain more about waste exemptions and the charge proposals. We also engaged directly with trade bodies and trade press for waste and water.

To support consultees in making their responses, we responded to many questions and queries from a broad range of customers and stakeholders during the consultation.

Summary of key findings and actions we will take

We reviewed all responses received for waste exemptions, hourly rate and medium combustion plant and have considered the feedback. As a result, we have made the following changes to our original proposals:

• additional waste exemptions are included in the common on-farm approach
• operators registering waste exemptions exclusively for charitable purposes will not pay waste exemption charges
• T28 exemptions are excluded from waste exemption charges, so these exemptions will not be subject to a charge
• updated guidance for the T6 exemption makes it clearer when this exemption needs to be registered

We will implement the following charges as proposed in the consultation:

• all hourly rate charges
• fixed charges for medium combustion plant
• waste exemption registration and compliance charges (with changes to the original proposals as listed above)

Overview of consultation responses

We received a total of 1,998 responses to the consultation. This is an overall total and includes responses made to questions about our proposals for waste crime levy and fee for intervention.

Of these responses, 1,939 were submitted using our Citizen Space online consultation tool and 47 using our consultation response form. In total this gives 1,986 responses aligned to the formal consultation layout. We also received 12 further responses by email, letter or phone call. We considered these emails, letters and phone calls alongside the formal responses but could not include them in the numerical summaries because they did not align with the format of our consultation questions.

In total, 720 of the 1,998 responses were submitted on behalf of an organisation, group or trade association. These organisations represent a broad range of private, community and commercial interests. Many highlighted that their response was submitted on behalf of several customers. Collectively they represent many hundreds of interested parties.

The 1,986 formal responses were submitted by:

• 1,074 individuals
• 715 organisations or groups
• 141 others
• 56 respondents who did not specify

The 715 respondents who described themselves as organisations, groups or trade associations said their main area of activity was:

• waste (119)
• farming (236)
• chemicals (10)
• energy production (7)
• radioactivity (6)
• other (323)
• not answered (14)

You can find detailed information on the responses to each question for waste exemptions, hourly rate and medium combustion plant in Annex 1 of the consultation response. This includes our analysis of the comments we received.

In Annex 1, we have not included the responses to the specific questions relating to waste crime or fee for intervention. These responses will be published with the response document for these 2 sections at a later date.

Annex 2 gives a list of organisations and groups that participated in the consultation.

We would like to thank all those who participated in the consultation and took time to provide this valuable feedback.

Improvement ideas – feedback

Many respondents identified with the polluter pays principle when asked a free text (open) question about how we could improve our current proposals or future consultations. Respondents also commented that they:

• thought our proposals were too complex
• wanted better, more effective regulation
• felt the proposals could cause economic concern for customers
• agreed some customers should pay extra, but said others should not
• thought proposals may cause unintended environmental harm by disengaging charge payers

Improvement ideas – our response

These comments reflect similar points that consultees raised through earlier questions. We respond here and provide additional detail in the following documents.  

We recognise that the subject matter of our charge proposals can be complex. It is important that customers have the opportunity to understand our proposals and the impact they will have. We aim to explain as clearly as possible within our consultation documents, whilst providing some technical detail so respondents have enough information to inform their feedback.

Our teams work hard to make sure regulation is as effective as possible based on the available resources. Continuous improvement is a key aim across all of our work. When we bring in new charges, it is because we need to fund new regulatory work, or because current charges no longer cover the costs of what we already do. Managing public money rules require us to bring our charges in line with relevant costs. This will allow us to regulate effectively and protect the environment.

We understand that some customers may be concerned about proposed charge increases. We recognise that economic circumstances are having a significant impact on many individuals, and businesses across diverse sectors are affected by our charge increases. Before proposing any charge increase, we thoroughly consider alternative options to make sure we deliver our duties in the most effective and efficient way possible. We aim to explain the proposed charges as clearly as possible, including which customer groups could see increased charges and how the new charges will operate. As an example during the consultation, some customers contacted us to ask for clarification about how new charges would apply to their particular situation.

We are grateful for the responses received. All feedback to our consultation is read and analysed - it plays an important part in our decision making.

Next steps

We have considered all consultation feedback and where appropriate, we have made changes to our proposals. We will implement the new and updated charges as described in this document from July 2025. We will publish a separate response at a later date to confirm the outcome of the proposed waste crime levy and fee for intervention.

You can view the following documents on GOV.UK: 

• our updated charging scheme
• a guide on how we calculate our charges