Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many chemicals have been uploaded to the UK REACH IT database as of 27 March 2019.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The ‘Comply with UK REACH’ IT system forms part of our planning for the scenario in which the UK leaves the EU without a deal. This IT system will only go live in a no deal scenario. No registration dossiers or technical information can therefore be submitted at this time.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times the UK has requested a quicker action on a chemical restriction, including additional rapid phase-out deadlines, that have been blocked by (a) other Member States and (b) the European Chemicals Agency.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
In 2012 the UK proposed that the substance decaBDE should be classified as a substance of very high concern (SVHC), which would be followed by authorisation procedures to limit its use. DecaBDE was listed as an SVHC, as proposed by the UK, but the EU decided not to proceed with authorisation procedures, and took an alternative route of restriction instead. The restriction was not adopted until 2017. The EU’s decision to opt for a restriction rather than continuing with the authorisation process resulted in a delay in regulatory action.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on how many occasions the UK has opposed the restriction of a chemical by (a) another Member State and (b) the European Chemicals Agency.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Chemicals are restricted under the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation.
Under REACH, the UK has opposed the restriction of two chemicals:
The extension of a restriction on Poly-Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) to consumer items (Annex XVII, entry 50, paragraphs 5-7);
A restriction on Methanol in windscreen washing or defrosting fluids (Annex XVII, entry 69, paragraph 1).
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times the UK has objected to a substance being named as a substance of very high concern by the European Chemicals Agency.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Where an SVHC proposal has gone to the Member State Committee the UK has objected to seven substances. Of these seven substances, the UK has subsequently given its assent to four after modification of the proposal.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Coventry East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the debate of 25 February 2019, on Exiting the European Union (Consumer Protection) motion debate, Official Report column 75, what progress has been made on setting up the IT system intended to support the establishment of UK REACH.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
In the event of a no-deal scenario, the UK REACH IT system will provide the critical functionality needed to support UK REACH and provide continuity for UK business. REACH IT is being built in a phased approach, prioritising all essential industry user functions for the end of March 2019. This will enable industry to register new chemicals and those with existing REACH registrations to provide the UK Agency, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with details to verify those registrations.
We have tested this system in recent weeks with over 100 industry users, receiving positive feedback during its testing phase. The decision was made not to switch to deploying contingency plans as we are confident that the UK REACH IT system will be ready from 29 March.