George Eustice MP, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has written to industry leaders about the UK REACH chemicals registration, outlining the Government’s intention to:
The letter from 6th December 2021, addressed to Steven Elliot, Chief Executive of the Chemical Industries Association, reads as follows:
"Dear Steve,
I am writing in response to your letter of 9 February in which you proposed an alternative UK REACH registration model that aimed to mitigate the costs of accessing data to support UK REACH transitional registrations.
The UK is committed to an effective regulatory system for chemicals which properly pro-tects both human health and our environment and can respond effectively to emerging risks. UK REACH is a key regulatory tool for achieving that – aiming to ensure companies who put chemicals on the market understand and manage the risks they might pose.
However, I am aware of concerns around accessing data packages to support UK REACH transition, including the cost to businesses. Because of that, I have asked my officials to work with the Health and Safety Executive and Environment Agency to explore a new model for transitional registrations. The model they have proposed would reduce the need for replicating EU REACH data packages by placing a greater emphasis on improving our understanding of the uses and exposures of chemicals in the GB context. This has the potential to provide clearer evidence on whether each company is managing chemicals safely and support more targeted regulatory actions (for example, identifying the highest risk chemicals), whilst also reducing burdens on businesses.
Although it is too early to commit to a new model, we want to further explore its potential. We would therefore like to engage with industry and other interested stakeholders over the next few months to develop this model in more detail. I would greatly value your participation in this process to try to develop a practical and deliverable model which reduces costs to industry, while still ensuring high levels of environmental and health protection.
As of 28 October, companies will have provided their initial registration data under the UK REACH transitional provisions. They will now be taking the next steps towards providing full registration data within the current phased deadlines. It will take time to fully explore an alternative registration model and, if we want to proceed with it, to develop and pass the necessary legislation. We intend to consult separately on extending the deadlines for the full registration data to provide time for this work. Subject to that consultation, we are currently minded to extend the 27 Oct 2023 deadline to 27 Oct 2025. We also intend to consult on what, if any, extensions of the other deadlines would be appropriate.
I will ask my officials to contact you to provide more details on the alternative model and initiate discussions. I do believe that there is the potential here to deliver a genuinely better system."
