In 2018, the Government began to undertake consultations regarding the use of exemption licences at permitted waste sites, with the aim of improving operator competence standards at such sites and reducing the use of the exemptions to cover illegal activity.

The consultations raised a series of amendments to be made to the key exemptions that were deemed to encourage poor environmental practice or illegal activity. The proposed reforms make changes to storage limits on waste, the waste that can be used for specific exemptions and to remove some exemptions all together.

Land and Property Professionals, Robinson & Hall explain more…

Some reforms have already been implemented, such as disallowing multiple exemption licences to be applied for on one site. Further reform on waste records now requires waste operators (i.e. those with a waste exemption licence or environmental permit) to keep electronic records of storage and movement and to provide these on demand.

The new reforms are proposed to come into force in autumn 2024, although a formal date has not yet been released. Each exemption has a specific transition period, setting a period in the months following the reform implementation by which waste operators must conform with the changes.

The transition period applies to existing licences and licences registered in the transition period. For those exemptions that are due to be removed, waste operators will be required to apply for an environmental permit to continue these activities.

The table below details the changes to the individual exemptions.

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