MANCHESTER, U.K. - eTradeWire -- TCM Pro has launched a free TCM attendance calculator on its website. It tells an operator the minimum hours a week their technically competent manager must be on site during a permit's first six months, using the Environment Agency's own method.

Most operators will say the answer is twenty per cent. Under the Environment Agency's guidance, the 20% rule applies only to standard rules permits and to permits applied for before 1 April 2018 that had a fixed application charge. Every other permit uses attendance points from the site's Opra complexity, location and emissions bands, which can require anything from 5% to 55% of operating time.

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The calculator asks three quick questions: the permit type, the Opra bands where points apply, and weekly operating hours, entered with a slider or typed in. It shows the minimum hours and how the figure was reached. An optional first question looks up the site's activity against CIWM's risk tier table and shows the Level 4 qualification the manager needs.

TCM Pro said: "The 20% figure gets repeated as if it applies to every site, and for a lot of permits it does not. Attendance has to be recorded and shown to the Environment Agency on request, so we built a tool that lets an operator check their own figure in under a minute, using the regulator's own tables."

The answers can differ sharply. A waste activity with Opra bands D, C and D scores 9 points, or 35% of operating time. On a site running 60 hours a week that is 21 hours, against the 12 the 20% rule would suggest. Attendance is capped at 48 hours a week, which matters most for sites running around the clock, such as anaerobic digestion plants.

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After six months, continuing attendance is agreed with the Environment Agency, and a compliance rating score over 16 in any quarter returns a site to its original requirement. When the manager takes time off, the operator must arrange cover.

The calculator is free, needs no sign-up and is at https://tcmpro.co.uk/tcm-attendance-calculator/. Its figures come from the Environment Agency's guidance "Legal operator and competence requirements: environmental permits", last updated on 11 June 2026; the rules do not apply to members of the EU Skills scheme. TCM Pro arranges COTC and WAMITAB cover for every CIWM (WAMITAB) Level 4 qualification at https://tcmpro.co.uk/cotc-cover-wamitab-cover/.