How long do you have to submit a record of waste you received?
Two working days from receiving the load. Defra's receipt of waste service sets that window for a receiving site, and this page answers the questions a skip yard or transfer station asks next: when the clock starts, how weekends count, and what to do when one has already run out.
The two working day window, in plain terms
What the window is
Defra's receipt of waste service asks a receiving site to report each load it takes in within two working days of receiving it. The window runs per load, not per day and not per quarter, so a busy Tuesday on the weighbridge is a dozen separate deadlines all running at once.
Why yards find it awkward
The quarterly return trained everyone to batch the paperwork. Two working days does not allow that. A weight written on a pad at the weighbridge has to reach Defra's spreadsheet before the week turns over, and the part that usually goes wrong is not the upload itself, it is nobody knowing which loads are still outstanding.
What Skiplog is built to do about it
Skiplog is built to keep that list for you, as a dashboard card of notes not yet reported, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow, counted off the two working days from when each load came in. The page here on the loads still to report goes through that card in detail.
Counting the window when working days are Monday to Friday and no bank holiday falls between
| Load received | Report due by |
|---|---|
| Monday | Wednesday |
| Tuesday | Thursday |
| Wednesday | Friday |
| Thursday | Monday |
| Friday | Tuesday |
| A bank holiday in between | One working day later again |
Questions
How long do I have to submit a receipt of waste record?
Two working days from receiving the load. Defra's guidance for the receipt of waste service sets that window, and it applies to each load rather than to a day's work or a quarter's. If twenty wagons tip on a Monday, that is twenty records due by the Wednesday. Nothing in it waits for your quarterly Environment Agency return, which is a separate obligation on a separate clock.
When does the clock start, at the weighbridge or when I do the paperwork?
It runs from when the waste is received, which for a yard is the moment the load is weighed in or tipped, not the moment someone gets round to typing it up. That is why Skiplog is built to capture the date and time received on the transfer note itself, while the wagon is still on the pad. Record it there and the deadline is counted for you instead of reconstructed on Friday afternoon.
Do weekends and bank holidays count against the two days?
The window is counted in working days, so a weekend does not consume it. Read practically, a load in on a Thursday falls due on the Monday and a load in on a Friday on the Tuesday, with a bank holiday pushing each one a working day further out. Check Defra's guidance for your own case, because defining a working day is the regulator's job, not a supplier's. Skiplog is built to count the two working days from the date received and to show you what is overdue, due today and due tomorrow.
What happens if I have already missed the two working days on a load?
Report it as soon as you find it. A late record is still a record, and an unreported load is the worse position to be in when an officer asks about a ticket in your file. Skiplog cannot promise an outcome on a deadline that has already passed; what it is built to do is put the backlog in date order so the office can work through it one load at a time. There is a separate page here on catching up on loads you have already taken in.
Do I have to report every load I take in?
That is a scope question rather than a timing one, and GOV.UK publishes a checker for it called check if you need to report the waste you receive. It turns on what your site is permitted or exempt for and the waste you take, not on how many trucks you run. Read it before you build a process around the two day window, because the answer decides which loads the clock applies to. Skiplog records the loads you enter; it does not decide your scope for you.
If Defra rejects a load, how long do I have to put it right?
A rejection starts a fresh clock rather than extending the old one. Skiplog is built to let you mark a receipt as rejected by Defra, take the date off the rejection notice and set a new two working day deadline from it, so the load goes back onto the overdue list instead of into a notebook. The page here on a load Defra rejected covers the action and the new clock.
What about correcting a load Defra has already accepted?
That is a different and longer window: the correction is made in Defra's own service, which allows considerably more than two days for it, so read the guidance for the case you are in. Skiplog is built to flag a corrected or removed note that already carries a Defra reference as a correction to report, holding the reference the load was accepted under alongside the old and new value of whatever changed. That way the office can make the same change at Defra's end and show later what was altered and when.
How long do I keep the record after I have reported it?
Reporting a load does not end your record keeping. Skiplog keeps everything while the account is open, because waste records have to span quarters and inspections, and a note you remove comes off your register and your returns but stays on file for the two years the regulations require. A lapsed trial does not lock the records away either: they stay readable and exportable. Deleting the account removes it all at once, so download anything the Environment Agency still needs from you before you do that.