Small businesses that pay extended producer responsibility (pEPR) fees now have a fixed deadline for correcting their 2025 packaging data.
PackUK has said producers who need to resubmit 2025 packaging data must do so by 1 September 2026 if they want those corrections to be reflected in their Notices of Liability and disposal fees.
The update matters for any SME that places packaging on the UK market and is large enough to be in scope of pEPR fees, whether it reports directly or through a compliance scheme. It gives businesses a clear final window to check their figures before confirmed fees for year two of the scheme are calculated.
What has changed?
PackUK, acting on behalf of the four UK nations, has introduced a resubmission deadline of 1 September 2026 for 2025 packaging data. The organisation says this gives producers five months from the 1 April reporting deadline to correct errors and resubmit data.
After that date, regulators will continue compliance monitoring, but later data resubmissions will not change Notices of Liability or disposal fees. PackUK says it will use the corrected data to publish confirmed producer fees for 2026/27 and issue Notices of Liability later this year.
For SMEs, the practical point is straightforward: if the 2025 data is wrong and it affects pEPR fees, the correction needs to be made before the September deadline. Leaving it until later may still be necessary for wider recycling obligations, but it will not change the fee notice.
Why this matters for small firms
Packaging data can be easy to treat as an admin task, but errors can feed directly into costs. PackUK says the deadline is intended to improve data stability and reduce in-year fee variability, so businesses can plan with more confidence.
That should help finance teams, owner-managers and operations leads understand likely cash requirements before Notices of Liability arrive. As in year one, producers will have 50 calendar days to pay, with the option to pay in instalments.
For smaller producers operating close to reporting thresholds, the deadline is also a useful prompt to check whether packaging weights, material categories, group structures and compliance-scheme submissions still line up with internal records.
What to check now
Businesses that report through a compliance scheme should contact the scheme promptly to confirm what information is needed and by when. Do not assume the scheme deadline is the same as the official 1 September date; schemes may need data earlier so they can review and submit it in time.
SMEs that submit directly should check the source records behind the 2025 return, especially where packaging materials, imported goods, own-brand products, online sales or distributor arrangements have changed during the year.
It is also worth making sure responsibility is clear internally. Packaging data often sits between operations, procurement, finance and compliance. A missed correction can easily happen when nobody owns the final review.
This is part of a wider pattern of compliance deadlines becoming more data-led for small firms. Businesses already preparing for digital tax reporting may find it useful to apply the same discipline to packaging records, including named owners, evidence files and review dates. BritishSME has also covered how small businesses should prepare for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
The takeaway
If your business pays pEPR fees, treat 1 September 2026 as a firm operational deadline. Check whether your 2025 packaging data is accurate, speak to your compliance scheme if you use one, and build in enough time for corrections before the window closes.
After the deadline, further corrections may still be required for accuracy and recycling obligations, but they will not change the fee notice. That makes the next few weeks the moment to find and fix mistakes, rather than waiting for the bill.
Source: PackUK: New resubmission deadline for 2025 packaging data.
