Which permit number goes in your digital waste tracking submission

The permit number is the field we see entered incorrectly most often. It is the receiving site's authorisation number, the number that lets your site accept waste under its environmental permit, and it has to be in a format DEFRA recognises before your submission is accepted.

This guide shows the formats DEFRA accepts for each UK nation, where to find your number, and the mistakes behind most of the permit number rejections we see.

The mistakes we see most often

When a permit number is wrong, it is usually wrong in one of these ways.

• A carrier registration, such as CBDU123456. That number belongs to the business carrying the waste, not the site receiving it. It never goes in this field.
• A DEFRA API code, such as 1f83215e-4b90-4785-9ab2-2614839aa2e9. That code connects your software to the service and never belongs in this field.
• Dashes instead of slashes, such as EPR-AB1234CD. Where an accepted format includes a forward slash, a dash in its place is rejected. (Some old numbers contain no slash at all, and SEPA numbers can include a hyphen.)
• An old licence number on its own, such as 43604. Historic waste management licence numbers appear in the accepted list with an EAWML or WML prefix in front, for example WML43604, and many sites have since been reissued with a modern EPR number that looks like EPR/AB1234CD.
• Extra references stuck on the end, such as EPR/AB1234CD/A001. Application and variation references belong to the paperwork rather than the number, apart from the version suffixes that are part of some Northern Ireland formats, such as P1234/56A/V1.

The pattern in all five is the same: the field is asking for one exact thing, and it is easy to reach for the number you use every day instead.

The formats DEFRA accepts, by nation

Each UK regulator issues permit numbers in its own shape, and DEFRA accepts all of them. Case does not matter. The punctuation does: where a format includes forward slashes, keep them, and copy the number exactly.

Older licences are still accepted as long as they keep their prefix: the historic forms take an EAWML or WML prefix followed by five or six digits, for example WML43604 or EAWML123456. In England, mobile plant deployments carry a suffix, for example EPR/AB1234CD/D9999, and Scottish SEPA-issued numbers include a hyphenated form such as PPC/A/SEPA1234-5678. If your number matches none of these shapes, check the register for your site before you submit.

Where a site holds more than one authorisation, the number that goes on the record is the one for the site that received the waste, and only one number goes on each submission.

How to find your permit number

Your permit number is printed on your environmental permit or licence document. If the paperwork is not to hand, every UK regulator publishes a public register you can search:

• England: the Environment Agency's waste operations public register, searchable by permit number or permit holder.
• Wales: the Natural Resources Wales public register.
• Scotland: SEPA's search the register service.
• Northern Ireland: the DAERA waste licences register.

The links are in the official sources list at the end of this page. When you find the record, check the number against the accepted formats above before you submit.

What happens if the number is wrong

DEFRA checks the format of the site authorisation number as soon as a submission arrives. A number it does not recognise is rejected with an error saying the number "must be in a valid UK format". The message does not say what the number should look like instead.

A rejected submission is not a lost record, but it is not reported either. The load stays unsubmitted until the number is corrected and the record is sent again, and for licensed or permitted waste receiving sites in England and Wales, reporting every load has been a legal duty since 1 October 2026. Scotland and Northern Ireland follow in January 2027.

In LoadLog, if something needs fixing there is analysis to guide you, so you can see what needs correcting and resubmit, rather than guessing at a failure buried in an inbox.

Where to enter your permit number in LoadLog

Add the number once and every submission for that site uses it. Single-site organisations enter it under Settings, then Organisation, in the Permit Number field. Multi-site organisations enter it per site under Settings, then Sites.

If you are ever unsure which number belongs in the field, the guide opens right beside it: the small (i) next to the label explains the field, and the helper text links back to this page. Behind the scenes, LoadLog sends your number to DEFRA as the receiver's authorisation number on every load recorded against the site.

The user guide walks through the settings screens, and the registration guide covers the rest of the DEFRA setup.