Technically competent manager (WAMITAB)

A technically competent manager is the person named by the operator of a permitted waste site as holding the competence to run it, normally evidenced by a qualification from one of the recognised operator competence schemes run by WAMITAB and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. The permit belongs to the company; the technical competence sits with a named human being.

The role is about the site being run the way the permit says it should be. That means only accepting the waste types the permit allows, keeping storage within the limits on the paperwork, making sure staff know what to do when a load turns up that does not match the description, and making sure the records behind all of it exist and can be produced. People in the trade shorten it to "the TCM", and on a small site it is usually the owner or the yard manager rather than a separate hire.

An example from a small yard

A two-wagon skip firm with a permitted transfer station has three staff and no office beyond a portable cabin. The owner sits the relevant WAMITAB qualification and is named as the technically competent manager. On a Tuesday a builder tips a skip with a bonded asbestos sheet in it. The weighbridge operator quarantines the load and rings the owner, because the owner is the person accountable for whether that waste can be accepted at all, how it is described on the transfer note, and whether it needs a consignment note instead. Nothing about that decision is software. What software can do is make sure the record of it is written down at the time and is still there three months later when the quarterly return is due.

There are two broad routes in practice, and which one applies depends on the kind of site and the permit it holds.

• The qualification route. The individual completes a WAMITAB operator competence qualification matched to the activities on the permit, for example non-hazardous waste transfer, and holds the certificate personally.
• The management system route. Larger operators can demonstrate competence through an approved competence management system rather than a named individual holding a single certificate. That route is built for bigger businesses and is rarely the sensible answer for a yard with five staff.

Competence is not a one-off. The schemes expect holders to keep it current, and the Environment Agency expects the named person to actually be present on site enough to run it. If your technically competent manager leaves, retires or lets their competence lapse, the operator has a gap to close and the regulator will want to know about it. Check the guidance for your own permit rather than relying on a summary page: the detail varies by activity and by the tier of permit you hold.

• Environmental permit. The authorisation that lets a site accept, store and treat waste. Technical competence is one of the conditions behind it.
• Waste carrier, broker or dealer registration. A separate registration, upper or lower tier, covering the movement of waste rather than the running of a site. It expires and has to be renewed, which is its own tracking job.
• Waste transfer note. The duty of care record created when waste changes hands, carrying the waste description, the List of Waste code, quantity, carrier details and destination.
• Consignment note. The hazardous waste equivalent of a transfer note, with its own process.
• Quarterly return. The periodic submission a permitted site makes to the Environment Agency, built from the notes logged over the quarter. Our guide on putting one together walks through the sequence.
• Season ticket. One transfer note covering repeat collections of the same waste from the same place for up to a year.

If you want the operational side rather than the definitions, the transfer station and recycling facility pages in this section cover what the day looks like on each type of site.