On 14 October 2020, after reported fierce debates, the European Commission adopted its Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, as a key component of its Green Deal – a comprehensive and ambitious approach to the application of chemicals regulation, building upon the cornerstones of the REACH chemicals Regulation ‘REACH’ and the Classification, Labelling and Production of Hazardous Substances Regulation ‘CLP’. We have reported separately on these proposals in our previous article on this site.

On 21 October 2020, in total contrast to this wide-ranging approach, we received the following notification of the UK’s intended approach in simply replicating the machinery of the REACH Regulation, having opted not to continue to seek any form of associate membership of the European Chemicals Agency ‘ECHA’ even if that were available –

“From 1 January 2021 the UK will put in place its own independent chemicals regulatory framework, UK REACH. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (as amended by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020) will convert directly applicable EU law into domestic law, including the REACH Regulation. To date, there are three Statutory Instruments (SIs) that allow REACH to function properly in the UK and add further refinements to the regime.
On Monday 19 October a fourth REACH SI was laid before Parliament. This instrument will:
Help to ensure the UK meets its obligations under the Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland and provide for access by Northern Irish goods to the Great Britain market.
Extend transitional provisions for importers of substances from EU based registrants by a further 120 days. These importers now have 300 days from 1 January 2021 to provide UK authorities with some initial information as part of a Downstream User Import Notification (DUINs).
Introduce a new phased approach to UK REACH data submission. Companies will now have 2, 4 or 6 years beginning after those 300 days for full registrations to be completed. These deadlines are dependent on tonnage bands and hazard profile, with the highest tonnage and most hazardous chemicals first.
The REACH SI can be found here on legislation.gov.uk. The SI will now make its way through the parliamentary processes, with the intention that it will come into force at the end of the Transition Period . We will be publishing detailed guidance on the HSE website in the next few days and will write to you again to provide a website link. If you have any further queries or wish to receive occasional updates related to EU Exit and Chemicals, please contact: REACH-IT@defra.gov.uk .

Kind Regards
Defra Chemicals Comms Team”.

For further information contact William Wilson at info@wyesideconsulting.com tel +44(0)1225-730-407