UK CBAM Regulatory Tracker

Yes. HMRC guidance published 16 July 2026 confirms the full accreditation standards a verifier must meet: accredited by a body that is a full member of Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated (GACI), a signatory to the GACI Multilateral Recognition Agreement, and independent of the installation, the importer, and the jurisdiction of the qualifying carbon pricing scheme. The verifier must also be accredited to ISO/IEC 17029:2019, ISO 14064-3:2019, ISO 14065:2020, and ISO 14066:2023. Note: this confirms the qualifying standards, not a curated named list of individually approved verifiers — that distinction still matters when vetting a specific provider.

HMRC's Policy Paper (published 16 July 2026) confirms the full transitional table. First accounting period: 1 January–31 December 2027, return and payment due 31 May 2028. From 1 January 2028, periods move to a quarterly cycle with a gradually narrowing return/payment window: Q1 2028 (Jan–Mar) due 31 July 2028; Q2 2028 (Apr–Jun) due 29 September 2028; Q3 2028 (Jul–Sep) due 30 November 2028; Q4 2028 (Oct–Dec) due 28 February 2029. The window narrows to the standard 2-month cycle from 2029 onward.

The statutory default is confirmed and in force: quarterly accounting periods ending March, June, September and December, with payment and returns due by the last working day of the second month after each period ends.

No. This is blocked outright, in force since commencement. General error correction remains available as a separate, narrower power. See our full breakdown of this myth →.

No — UK CBAM covers direct (Scope 1) emissions only from January 2027. Indirect emissions are excluded until 2029 at the earliest. We track this line for any change announcement.

Only draft/illustrative values exist, published in the April 2026 System Boundaries Document. No confirmed HMRC default emission values have been published. By design, any default eventually set cannot offer an advantage over verified data — including the advantage of simply not paying to verify.

Anyone who triggers registration during 2027 will have until 31 January 2028 to register, rather than the standard 30-day window — this is verbatim confirmed both in the enacted Act's own transitory-power provision (s.158(2)(a)) and in the draft regulation exercising it. The underlying rolling trigger — £50k trailing-12-month value, checked monthly, or a 30-day forward test — is confirmed verbatim in Schedule 17 Part 2 and always applies regardless: liability and record-keeping run from the trigger date, not from any easement date. See our full breakdown of this myth →.

Draft, published April 2026 (post-Royal Assent). Sets out the 8-step actual-emissions methodology, GWP factors (N₂O ×265, CF₄ ×6,630, C₂F₆ ×11,100), verifier independence standards, and the GACI accreditation requirement. Not yet made in final form.

Draft, published February 2026 — before Royal Assent (18 March 2026). Covers registration particulars (EORI, VAT number, trigger date, value of goods), return contents, valuation, weight, reimbursement, and record-keeping. Caution: this draft uses Finance Bill schedule numbering, one lower than the enacted Act — its "Schedule 16" corresponds to the enacted Schedule 17. Expect renumbering when the final SI is made.

Draft rules exist but are not final: the CBAM (Calculation of CBAM Rate and Determination of Carbon Price Relief) Regulations 2026, published 10 February 2026, set out qualifying-scheme eligibility (mandatory at law, independently verified emissions data, GACI-accredited verifier) and the relief calculation formula (effective carbon price × emissions embodied), including adjustments for compensation or rebates received. Relief is capped at the CBAM liability itself — it cannot exceed 100% of what would otherwise be owed. No list of qualifying schemes has been confirmed. Note: a scheme qualifying on paper does not guarantee relief — relief is based on the carbon price actually paid, not the scheme's headline price. Current scheme structures in Turkey (TR-ETS pilot), China (CN-ETS), and South Korea (K-ETS) allocate close to 100% of allowances free to carbon-leakage sectors including steel, making the effective price paid close to zero. India's CCTS has no confirmed qualifying price. See our full breakdown of this myth →.

No sector-specific quarterly CBAM rate has been published. The rate is recalculated every quarter by statute, not fixed annually. HMRC's Policy Summary commits to publishing rates at the start of each quarter from 1 January 2027, with an illustrative example rate due in Autumn 2026 — we track for that. The £55/tCO₂e figure used in planning tools across the industry is a UK ETS-derived planning proxy — it is not a published HMRC rate and should never be treated as one.