UK waste carrier registrations: the figures, by nation
How many businesses are registered to carry, broker or deal in waste in each UK nation, counted from the regulators' own public registers each month, and how many upper-tier registrations are due for renewal.
Figures from the four public registers on . We refresh them each month.
At a glance
- England426,046148,084 upper tier
- Wales18,9097,394 upper tier
- Scotland11,424granted, both schemes
- Northern Ireland4,4933,608 upper tier
8,360 upper-tier registrations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due for renewal in the next three months (October to December 2026), out of 159,086 in all.
Scotland isn't in the renewal figures: SEPA's register doesn't publish expiry dates. A business registered in more than one nation is counted in each.
Upper and lower tier, by nation
Upper tier is for anyone who carries construction or demolition waste or waste made by someone else, or acts as a broker or dealer, and is renewed every three years for a fee. Lower tier is for businesses that only carry waste they produce themselves (not construction or demolition waste), and for charities, voluntary organisations and waste authorities. It is free and doesn't need renewing, so its counts include businesses that may have stopped trading. Our guide to registration costs explains the tiers in each nation.
- Upper tier
- Lower tier
| Nation | Upper tier | Lower tier | Total | Upper tier share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 148,084 | 277,962 | 426,046 | 35% |
| Wales | 7,394 | 11,515 | 18,909 | 39% |
| Northern Ireland | 3,608 | 885 | 4,493 | 80% |
Upper-tier renewals due in the next 12 months
Upper-tier registrations run for three years. These are the expiry dates the registers show, by month. England's online service opens a renewal 3 months before the expiry date and can't renew an expired registration; in Northern Ireland a lapsed licence is closed and the business must apply again. In England, Defra plans to replace registration with environmental permits from July 2027, applied for when a registration is due for renewal.
| Month | England | Wales | Northern Ireland | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 2,129 | 125 | 60 | 2,314 |
| November 2026 | 3,103 | 166 | 89 | 3,358 |
| December 2026 | 2,519 | 99 | 70 | 2,688 |
| January 2027 | 3,902 | 212 | 96 | 4,210 |
| February 2027 | 4,357 | 213 | 104 | 4,674 |
| March 2027 | 4,513 | 214 | 95 | 4,822 |
| April 2027 | 3,544 | 226 | 111 | 3,881 |
| May 2027 | 3,035 | 167 | 119 | 3,321 |
| June 2027 | 2,521 | 192 | 98 | 2,811 |
| July 2027 | 2,825 | 189 | 90 | 3,104 |
| August 2027 | 3,001 | 169 | 78 | 3,248 |
| September 2027 | 3,051 | 193 | 89 | 3,333 |
| Next 12 months | 38,500 | 2,165 | 1,099 | 41,764 |
If you use a carrier, check their registration before each job, not just once: our free carrier check searches all four registers and shows the expiry date.
Upper tier: carriers, brokers and dealers
One upper-tier registration can cover carrying, brokering and dealing, in any mix. Lower-tier registrations are left out here: England's register, for one, lists every lower-tier entry as a carrier, broker and dealer. England's register also records only three upper-tier types (carrier and dealer, broker and dealer, or all three), so it has no carrier-only or broker-only figures.
| Registered as | England | Wales | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier, broker and dealer | 66,957 | 1,347 | 0 |
| Carrier only | 0 | 4,871 | 2,645 |
| Carrier and broker | 0 | 285 | 801 |
| Carrier and dealer | 78,074 | 773 | 90 |
| Broker and dealer | 3,053 | 36 | 0 |
| Broker only | 0 | 50 | 67 |
| Dealer only | 0 | 32 | 5 |
Scotland
Since 1 November 2025, SEPA has registered waste carriers, brokers and dealers under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (EASR), with no upper or lower tier. Its register keeps records that have expired or been surrendered, so the current figure is the granted ones from both schemes.
| Records on SEPA's register | Granted | Expired | Surrendered | All |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waste carrier registrations (before EASR) | 9,324 | 55 | 11 | 9,390 |
| EASR waste registrations (from 1 November 2025) | 2,100 | 0 | 0 | 2,100 |
How we count
- Every figure is a count of entries on a regulator's public register on 3 October 2026: Environment Agency public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers, Natural Resources Wales public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers, SEPA public register and DAERA (NIEA) public registers of waste carriers.
- England's and Wales's registers list registrations in force. Lower-tier registrations don't need renewing, so they build up over the years.
- Upper-tier entries still listed after their expiry date: England 0, Wales 29. They are in the totals but not in the renewal figures.
- The renewal figures for October 2026 count from 3 October 2026 to the end of the month.
- Each nation is counted separately, so a business registered in two nations counts twice.
- We publish counts only, never names or registration numbers. The figures are in one JSON file; you're welcome to quote them with a link to this page.
Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database right. Contains Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and Database Right. All rights reserved. Contains SEPA information (© Scottish Environment Protection Agency) and DAERA information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How Tippa helps
Tippa checks every carrier and broker on all four UK public registers when you save a record, and again every night, so a registration that lapses is flagged before the next job, not after it.
- Free, on every plan.
- Expired or revoked registrations are stopped from being used on new records.
- If you're a carrier or broker yourself, your own registration is checked too.
These figures are counts of public register entries, published as they stood on the date shown. They are not official statistics, and the regulators haven't checked or endorsed them.