Chemicals (Health and Safety) (Amendment, Consequential and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026

Lord Teverson Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, it is worth saying that the chemical industry—under pressure, indeed, as the noble Lord, Lord Redwood, said—is still a very important manufacturing sector in this country. It pays good wages, has high employment and, perhaps more importantly, is particularly centred in the north-east, the north-west and central Scotland, so it adds to regional policy in this country.

It suffers from high energy costs. It has also suffered from regulatory affairs, particularly immediately post Brexit, when the then Government were completely clueless about the cost and timing of setting up UK REACH. The estimates of the industry at the time were that it would cost some £10 billion to change from EU REACH to UK REACH within the timescales that were talked about. Thankfully, some degree of sanity then came along in terms of those dates. I note that the transitional compliance deadlines, which were originally supposed to take place in 2021, will finally take place in 2031, 10 years after originally expected.