GovWire

A producer compliance scheme (PCS) is a membership organisation. The members are producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE).

A PCS is responsible for registering all its members every year and must:

• ensure it meets its financial obligations under the WEEE regulations
• fulfil its data reporting obligations

Apply to become a WEEE PCS

You must apply for approval from the appropriate environmental regulator. This depends on where your company has its registered office or principal place of business. They are the:

• Environment Agency England
• Scottish Environmental Protection Agency Scotland
• Natural Resources Wales Wales
• Northern Ireland Environment Agency Northern Ireland

You must apply between 1 July and 31 August in the year before the first year you want to start work as a PCS.

You must complete an application form and send your fee with your application. Contact your environmental regulator to request a form.

Charges

The application charge is 12,150. This is a one off payment.

Annual charges for schemes approved by the Environment Agency

In England a PCS must pay:

• a set annual producer charge of 12,500 for operating a compliance scheme
• an additional annual charge based on the number and type of members

Charge set 1

The charges for scheme members whose registered office (or the scheme members principal place of business if they do not have a registered office) is in England or outside the UK are:

• 750 producers which are none of the below
• 100 producers who are not small and not VAT registered*
• 100 producers based outside the UK, who are not small and not VAT registered*
• 375 scheme members based outside the UK, who are not small and are VAT registered
• 30 scheme members who are small producers - put less than 5 tonnes of EEE on the market each year

*not VAT registered also implies not being required to register for VAT

An English compliance scheme pays the charges in charge set 2 for its members with a registered office (or principal place of business, if they do not have a registered office) in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Annual charges for schemes approved by SEPA, DAERA or NRW

Charge set 2

The charges are:

• 445 producers with more than 1 million turnover
• 210 producers with 1 million turnover or less and required to be VAT registered
• 30 for producers not VAT registered*
• 30 overseas company not VAT registered*
• 30 for small producers putting less than 5 tonnes of EEE on the market each year

*not VAT registered also implies not being required to register for VAT

Compliance schemes in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland pay the charges in charge set 1 if they have members with a registered office in England.

For the 2019 compliance year the annual producer charge is payable upon receipt of an invoice from your approving appropriate authority. Where a higher charge is payable because a member has a registered office in England, this will be invoiced by the Environment Agency. SEPA approved schemes will be invoiced by the Environment Agency for the difference between the fees. For example, a SEPA scheme with a member registered in England will be invoiced 445 by SEPA and 305 by the Environment Agency. This makes a total fee of 750.

Public register of approved PCSs

Once youve been approved your scheme will appear on a public register showing:

• your business or trading name
• your registered office or main place of business
• whether your PCS is for household or non-household WEEE or both

WEEE PCS: your duties

Register your members

Every year you must register all your members with your approving environmental regulator.

You must do this before 30 November of the preceding year. If a producer joins your scheme part-way through the year, you must register that producer within 28 days. You cannot remove a member during a compliance year.

Contact your environmental regulator if you have any questions about your XML file.

Finance your members household WEEE obligations

You are responsible for financing part of the overall household (also known as business to consumer B2C) WEEE collection target based on the market share of your members. Your overall target is split between each of the categories of EEE your members placed on the UK market in the previous year.

You must obtain sufficient evidence notes to show youve met these targets. Only approved authorised treatment facilities (AATFs) and approved exporters (AEs) that you have arrangements with can issue you evidence notes. An online platform called WEEE Online is used by AATFs, AEs and PCSs to do this. See WEEE evidence and national protocols for detailed guidance and access to the system.

See the list of approved AATFs and AEs in:

• England
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland

Targets and target adjustments

The government sets the collection target for each compliance year. Your environmental regulator will calculate and give you your targets by 31 March each year.

Targets will be adjusted during the compliance year if scheme members:

• stop trading (for example, if they go bankrupt)
• register late so the PCS has to resubmit data

Where you do not have enough direct collection contracts to meet your target, you may contract collection to another PCS to collect on your behalf.

Compliance fee

You may be able to pay a compliance fee. The government may approve one compliance fee methodology and an administrator to run it but is under no obligation to set a fee in any given compliance year. Anyone, including a PCS can propose a methodology and an organis

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