Skip Clerk UK skip reference

Trust

How to check a skip company’s waste carrier licence

First published 30 August 2026. Last checked 30 August 2026.

Ask for the firm’s waste-carrier number before they take the waste, then look it up on the public register. For a skip company taking household waste in England it should be an upper-tier registration starting CBDU.

Why this check exists

If you are a householder and a private firm (skip hire, house clearance) is taking waste from your property, the government’s waste duty of care code of practice says you should check they are an authorised carrier with a valid upper-tier registration. The number starts CBDU followed by digits.

That is the householder duty: take reasonable measures so the waste only goes to an authorised person. The wider business duty – including a waste transfer note – does not apply to occupiers of a domestic property dealing with their own household waste. It does apply if you add your own waste to a tradesperson’s skip, and it applies in full if you are hiring the skip as a business.

If a tradesperson produces the waste as part of their job, that waste is theirs to dispose of. Your check is for the firm that is taking your waste.

Upper tier versus lower tier

The Environment Agency’s register explains the split on the search page itself. A person or organisation is lower tier if they only carry waste they produced in the course of their business (unless it is construction or demolition waste), or if they only deal in animal by-products, mine and quarry waste or agricultural waste, or if they are a charity or voluntary organisation. A waste collection, disposal or regulation authority can also be lower tier.

If none of those apply, they are upper tier. The same page’s key examples include a business that “transports other people’s waste, like a skip company”, and a business that carries construction and demolition waste.

Lower-tier numbers start CBDL. An upper-tier skip firm taking your household waste should be CBDU. GOV.UK’s register-as-a-carrier page says numbers start with “CB”, and that upper-tier registrations must be renewed every 3 years. Lower tier does not need renewing.

If they cannot give you a number, or the number does not match the business on the register, or the expiry date has passed, do not let them take the waste. Find another firm.

Walkthrough: England, on the live register

This is the Environment Agency register as it stood on 30 August 2026. Only labels that were on the page that day are used below. The form lives at the Register of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers.

  1. Ask the skip company for their registration number. Write it down. For an upper-tier carrier it should look like CBDU followed by digits.
  2. Open the register. The heading is “Register of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers”. The page says you can find people or businesses registered as waste carriers, brokers or dealers.
  3. You must put a value in at least one search field. The error if you do not is “Please put in a value for at least one of the search criteria.”
  4. The fields are: Business name; Registration number; Address (optional – “Enter a complete address, or partial details such as the name of the town”); Postcode (required if you want to do a distance search); Maximum distance from postcode (1km, 3km, 5km or 10km); and Type – Upper Tier and Lower Tier checkboxes. The button is Search the register.
  5. If you have the number, use Registration number. That is the least ambiguous search. If you only have a trading name, use Business name, and tick Upper Tier. The Type boxes start ticked; the page says “Please select at least one tier”.
  6. The results page is titled “Results of searching Waste Carriers, Brokers, and Dealers”. The table columns are Name, Address, Registered as and Registration. The registration is a link, for example CBDU104686.
  7. Open that link. The record heading is “Registration [number] – [business name]”. The fields on the record are: Registration number, Business name, Address, Postcode, Registered as, Applicant type, Registration date and Expiry date.
  8. Check four things. The business name is the firm you are hiring, or clearly the same legal person. Registered as includes Upper Tier (on records checked today, a skip firm showed as “Carrier Dealer - Upper Tier”). The Expiry date has not passed. The address is plausible for that operator – it will often be a yard, not your street.

There is no “status” field on the record as it stood today. The expiry date is the date to read. The search page also has a survey banner and a “What’s the difference between upper and lower tiers?” note. Ignore those for the check.

GOV.UK’s duty-of-care code says you can also check using the registration number, business name or postcode, or call the Environment Agency on 03708 506 506.

Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

The Environment Agency register is the England register. The same search page states that carriers and brokers registered in Scotland (SEPA) or Wales (Natural Resources Wales) are also authorised to operate in England, and it links out to those registers.

The duty-of-care code quoted above is issued for England and Wales. This page does not pretend it is the Scottish or Northern Irish code.

What to keep

You are Must you keep a waste transfer note? What is worth keeping anyway
Householder, own household waste, private skip firm No – the code says the transfer-note rules do not apply to occupiers of a domestic property dealing with household waste from that property The CBDU number, a receipt that shows the firm’s legal name, and a photo of the register record or the skip lorry. The code says there is no legal requirement to keep these records, but they help if the waste is later fly-tipped
You add your own waste to a tradesperson’s skip The householder duty applies to what you added Same as above for your portion. The tradesperson remains responsible for the waste they produced
Business, landlord clearance, or any non-household waste Yes. A written description of the waste, agreed and signed – a waste transfer note, an invoice that contains the required information, or a season ticket for regular transfers of the same non-hazardous waste Keep a copy for 2 years for non-hazardous waste (3 years for hazardous consignment notes). The note must identify the waste, quantity, containment, time and place of transfer, and both parties including the carrier’s registration number

Hazardous waste uses a consignment note, not a transfer note. Domestic hazardous waste (other than asbestos) removed from a household is one of the narrow exceptions. Asbestos is not. Do not put it in the skip – see what you cannot put in a skip.

A sensible order

  1. Get the number before they load, not after they leave.
  2. Search the right nation’s register. In England, Registration number plus Upper Tier.
  3. Match the name, the tier and the expiry date.
  4. Keep the number and a receipt. If you are a business, get the transfer note and file it.
  5. Then worry about size and placement – size guide, skip permit.

Skip Clerk has no hire partners yet and no prices on this page. When we add a booking link it will be marked as an affiliate link. Until then, use a licensed local operator and the checks above.

Sources