Receipt of Waste API - Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
| Topic | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| When to update data with PUT? | Do we have to update the receipt or is the initial receipt the only required one? For example, after processing on the receiving site “general waste” on the initial receipt, but then grading process to two materials, general waste and wood, each with a weight. | There are a few other scenarios similar to this, such as the disposal or recovery codes, where that will not be known at the point of receiving the waste. However, it should later be identified and the policy expectation is that this should then be submitted within 2 working days of receiving the waste. |
| Impact on RoPA (GDPR) | An email address is a form of personal information. Do I assume this falls under our RoPA obligation for documenting also? | Yes, under GDPR legislation, you would need to update your Record of Processing Activities (RoPA) to note that email addresses will be stored within the Defra DWT service. |
| Carriers based overseas | How do we record carriers that are registered overseas i.e. not in UK or Ireland? It could refer to a third party courier which is a foreign company that's been contracted to remove the material. That does happen quite frequently. | A waste carrier registration number is a legal requirement for businesses that transport, buy, sell or dispose of waste. Regardless of whether the company is based overseas. Therefore this is always required. If the waste carrier does not have a UK or Ireland address, then this can be left out as the Address and Post Code fields are optional. |
| Receiving waste from overseas | Do we need to record waste movements that came from overseas? | No, only waste sent and received in the UK is in scope for the Receipt of Waste government service. |
| Sending waste overseas | Do we need to record waste movements when the waste is sent overseas? | No, only waste sent and received in the UK is in scope for the Receipt of Waste government service. |
| Identity management (OAuth) | How are identities being managed? If the assumption is that the organization ID is the waste holder producer, how is IDM handled for the system submitting? | The software system would be authenticated using OAuth 2.0. Each software system would get a client ID and secret follow the standard OAuth2 process to get a token and then pass that token in the header of any API calls. |
| On Premises Systems and auth tokens | Our software is predominantly on premises, do we need a separate auth token for each site? | If your on-prem software has no connectivity to any centralised APIs managed by your company then yes, each deployment would need it’s own credentials. It is however possible to create a centralised web hosted token service which could be used to manage your credentials and use them to generate tokens as and when required. You could then either pass the tokens back to each on prem deployment and call our APIs or proxy all calls through your servers and do the authentication as part of the proxy. |
| Timing for submission | When does a waste receiver need to submit waste movement data? | The policy expectation is within 2 working days beginning with the day after the waste is received; so if waste was received at 9:00am on Monday morning, the waste receipt record must be posted before midnight on the Wednesday.If the waste is being received by pipeline then the 2 working days begins the day after the period specified on the consignment note for that piped waste movement ends. So if the consignment note covers a week's worth of piped waste movement and that week ends on a Tuesday, then the receipt record must be posted before midnight on the Thursday. |
| Can submissions be for any waste receiver | Can only certain software companies submit records on behalf of certain receiving organisations. If so, how is this administered? Or can any OAuth create a post to any receiving site? | Any software vendor with valid OAuth credential could submit on behalf of any organisation if the have their ID. As the ID is a GUID the only way a vendor should be able to obtain it is if the organisation provides it to them. Should the organisation no longer wish for that vendor to submit data on their behalf they can remove the ID in their account. |
| Can software systems register and pay for waste receivers | Will software systems be able to register customers on their behalf including paying? | No, waste receivers will need to register and pay on the DWT website. |
| Recording waste rejection | Waste rejection was in an earlier draft of the spec, but now it has gone? Do we need to record waste rejection? | In the V1 of the Receipt of Waste dataset there were some data items in this spec for waste rejection, however there are a lot of complexities around the regulatory processes that would need to trigger. For example hazardous waste consignment rejections; involves a stringent process of linking the waste movement that was rejected to the new subsequent waste movement, all of which cannot be achieved with the receipt of waste dataset alone. Therefore, currently we do not see much value in bringing those waste rejection fields into this data set if it cannot trigger the correct rejection process. |
| Intra-company waste transfers | In the scenario of intercompany waste transfers, so that is where you're moving material from one of your sites to another site, would you require a waste receipt for that? | Yes, a waste movement record is required when moving between sites, even within the same company. |
| Intra-site waste transfers | If you have a physical site that has two permit numbers because it has two processing areas within it. You would be moving materials from one to the other, so they may move between permit numbers. Would that require a submission when they're not physically moving site? And in that scenario there wouldn't be a carrier involved because you're physically moving it yourself within your own site, but within two areas within the same site. | Yes, a waste movement record is required moving the waste within a site, between two distinct permits. Because the obligations of each permit require you to record the waste input and output.If no Carrier was used then provide Null carrierRegistration and provide the reason in reasonForNoCarrierRegistration |
| Text field size limit | What is the size limit for free text fields, such as “Waste Description”? | Size limit is 5,000 characters maximum. |
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