Landfill Tax rates increased across the UK from 1 April 2018. The tax has been extended to include disposals at unauthorised waste sites in England and Northern Ireland.

A further change from 1 April 2018 is that the Welsh Government now has its own powers to set the Landfill Tax for Wales. This will be known as the Landfill Disposals Tax (LDT) and has been confirmed at the same level as the rest of the UK this year.

Scotland continues to operate with its own landfill tax. This is set at same rate as the rest of the UK, and is known as the Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT). 

As of last week, the Environment Agency have now obtained powers which allow them to tackle waste crime. This will allow the EA to lock illegal waste sites and force any illegal operators to clean up all waste. 

Going forward as part of the changes, EA employees will all wear body cameras following a “growing number of abusive incidents during site inspections”.

The changes were initially announced in January 2018 but were subject to parliamentary approval. This was in conjunction with a consultation by Defra on further action to crack-down on illegal sites. This consultation expired on Monday last week (March 26 2018).

The public consultation in which 90% of respondents, said Defra, were in favour of allowing regulators to take physical steps to prevent operators from accepting more illegally dumped waste.

The new powers will allow the EA to lock the gates of illegal sites to prevent the build-up of waste, and the EA can now force operators to clear all the waste at a problem site, not just the illegal waste.

Landfill Tax rates have increased across the UK from 1 April 2018.  The tax has been further extended to include disposals at unauthorised waste sites in England and Northern Ireland.

From April 2018 the Welsh Government now has its own powers to set the Landfill Tax for Wales which is known as the Landfill Disposals Tax (LDT). Scotland continues to have its own landfill tax and is known as the Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT). Scotland already levies the tax on unauthorised disposal sites and Wales has provision to do this also.

From 1 April 2018, Landfill Tax is changing to include disposals at unauthorised waste sites in England and Northern Ireland. The changes in the system have been put in place with an aim to support legitimate waste management businesses by creating a fairer tax system and be a deterrent to causing environmental harm by disposing of material at an unauthorised waste site.

Compliance Schemes across the UK have criticised the Environment Agency's decision to increase subsistence fee charges. 

The changes which were publicised last week by the Environment Agency for regulatory permits and services are said to ensure businesses cover the costs of services rather than the public. As a result a number of compliance schemes have expressed their concerns about the level of fees and charges to be imposed by the EA. The changes will see some annual WEEE charges which the EA levies on producers would more than triple from 1 January 2019. 

Currently, Agency fees are £210 for companies with a turnover below £1m, and £445 for companies with a turnover above £1m. As a result of the changes by the EA, these charges will now increase to £750 from January 2019.

It appears that the targets set by Defra for the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is looking to be lower this year than those set in 2017.  

The possible 532,818 tonnes target for 2018 is also almost 100,000 tonnes lower than the 2017 target of 621,990. The target for 2018 is now out for discussion now.