Five working days. Counted precisely.

Clearing it is not approval

Nothing arrives at the end of the five days. There is no determination, no acknowledgement, no change of status on the register. BP-N002/2024 is a self-certified route: the producer declares the batch meets the national criteria, and that assessment stays the producer's throughout.

What the period does is give the local authority — automatically alerted on registration — a window to act before material moves. So the correct reading of a cleared standstill is no enforcement direction was recorded, not the EPA agreed. Enforcement remains available at any time, including after the last load has been tipped.

How the registration route works, step by step →

Straight questions

When exactly does the clock start?

On the date the batch is registered on the EPA public register — not the date you began preparing the registration, not the date you obtained the End User's Declaration, and not the date the EPA acknowledges anything. Registration is the only event the criteria attach the period to.

Why do you count it conservatively when the criteria are silent?

Because the criteria say “no less than five working days”, which sets a floor rather than a target. Every ambiguity — whether the registration day counts, whether weekends count, whether you may move on the fifth day — has a shorter reading and a longer one, and only the shorter one can put you in breach. Waiting longer than required is never an offence; moving a day early might be.

Does clearing the standstill mean the EPA has approved the movement?

No, and this is the most common misreading of the route. BP-N002/2024 is self-certified: there is no EPA decision at any point. Clearing the period means only that no enforcement direction was recorded before movement began. The assessment that the batch qualifies remains the producer's, and enforcement remains possible at any time — before the standstill, during it, and long after the material has moved.

What is the waiting period actually for?

It gives enforcement authorities a window to run desk or site checks before material moves. The local authority receives an automatic alert when a batch is registered, so the period is the practical opportunity for that alert to be acted on.

Does the single-case route have a standstill too?

No. A single-case Article 27 notification through EDEN's By-Product module has no fixed waiting period at all, because it ends in an EPA determination rather than a self-certification. Material should not move until that determination issues. The EPA indicates a minimum of three weeks after the last correspondence, and its 2019 guidance — still current — advises expecting around ten weeks. That is a programme decision, not a countdown.

What happens if the material moves early?

The transfer breaches a condition of the registration. Material that does not meet the criteria is waste, and moving waste outside the waste regime carries the usual exposure under the Waste Management Act 1996 — including the collection-permit requirement that by-product movements are argued to fall outside. The five days are cheap by comparison.

General information, not legal advice. The counting convention above is our reading of a point the criteria leave open, not a statement of settled law. Statutory references: EPA National By-Product Criteria BP-N002/2024; Regulation 27, European Union (Waste Directive) Regulations 2011–2020; Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (as amended) for the public-holiday list.