The Declaration
Assembling the declaration, submitting it, and keeping it current.
The declaration is the legal hinge: a specific set of fields, a hard pre-2028 timing incentive, and a mandatory re-submission at least every three years. The Declaration tab of the range's compliance hub tracks all of it for you.
Records and your submitted declaration
Once a declaration is submitted, the evidence behind it is protected:
Records dated on or before the submission date can still be corrected, but you'll be asked to give a short reason, which is kept in the audit trail with your name and the date.
They can't be deleted. If a record should never have existed, mark it as entered in error — it stays visible (struck through) but stops counting towards your figures.
Records you add after submitting work as normal.
This is the same idea as a closed accounting period: your figures stay correctable, but nothing covered by a submission can change silently.
Starting a declaration
Click Start declaration. Range Mate pre-fills what it can from the range — name, address, OS grid reference, and a standard confirmation statement. Add the person responsible for safety (name and contact) and review the rest.
The enforcing authority is set automatically from the range's nation (EA for England, NRW for Wales, SEPA for Scotland).
The readiness checklist
While a declaration is a draft, you'll see a Submission readiness checklist. It won't let you mark the declaration ready until everything is present:
the required fields (range name, address, grid reference, responsible person, confirmation statement, authority),
at least one soil/water sample, and
at least one risk-reduction action.
A progress bar shows how close you are. Once everything's ticked, click Mark ready.
Recording a submission
When you've actually submitted to your enforcing authority, click Record submission and enter the date. Range Mate then:
sets the next review date to three years later, and
tracks it on the dashboard, warning you as renewal approaches.
Submit before 1 April 2028 for uninterrupted use of lead projectiles when the transition ends. The range page and dashboard both show a live countdown to the deadline until you've submitted.
Exporting for submission
The enforcing authorities haven't yet published a single online submission format, so Range Mate gives you a portable export to submit yourself:
Export PDF — a human-readable declaration document.
Export JSON — a structured version, ready to map to the authority's format once it's published.
Renewing & resubmitting
A declaration must be kept current and re-submitted at least every three years. When it's time (or your information changes):
Open the current declaration and click Start resubmission.
A new declaration is created, pre-filled from the old one, which is kept in the history as superseded.
Update anything that's changed, mark it ready, and record the new submission.
If a submitted declaration passes its three-year review date without being renewed, Range Mate marks it lapsed so it's obvious on the dashboard.
The enforcing authority maintains a public list of submitted sites and can remove a site — and enforce the restriction — if the information isn't kept up to date or re-submitted within three years. Weak or stale records are a real exposure, which is why the renewal clock matters.
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