Digital Waste Tracking (DWT) has been a long time coming, and it has slipped twice. This time the key dates sit in laid secondary legislation, and the October 2026 deadline for receiving sites is confirmed and on track. Here is the full timeline.
The road to law
2018: first committed in the Resources and Waste Strategy
January to April 2022: joint four nation consultation, 713 responses
October 2023: government response to the consultation published
Autumn 2025: private beta opens to invited waste receivers
24 April 2026: the Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026 laid in Parliament
28 April 2026: public beta opens, voluntary, on GOV.UK
1 October 2026: mandatory for receiving sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
1 January 2027: mandatory for receiving sites in Scotland
October 2027: Phase 2, mandatory for carriers, brokers and dealers
Later phases: registered exemption holders (around 150,000) and green list waste exports
How firm are these dates
The October 2026 receiver deadline is the one to plan around. It is confirmed and backed by laid regulations. Everything past it, including the October 2027 carrier date, remains planned and has moved before, so treat later dates as a strong working assumption rather than a certainty. Always verify against legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK.
What this means for you now
The public beta is your free, voluntary window to test before the mandate switches on. The smartest move is to use it to validate your data quality and build the habit, so the deadline becomes a non-event rather than a scramble.