With the long awaited publication of the WEEE Recast Directive on 24th July 2012 in the EU’s Official Journal, WEEE Producers, Schemes, local authorities and AATFs now have a clearer idea of the time-frames and requirements that will be placed on them. The transposition rules state that the UK must create its own Regulations to implement the Directive within 18 months of the publication date in the Official Journal. This therefore confirms the start date to be January 2014 – the commencement of the 2014 Compliance Year. BIS has already announced some interim measures under its “Red Tape Challenge” response and these have effectively triggered the commencement of the consultation process. However, BIS now has the power to shorten such consultations where it deems it appropriate, so while the current news is that consultations will continue to be carried out in the front half of 2013, this could changed or shortened.