Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that new additions to the EU’s Substances of Very High Concern Candidate List are assessed promptly UK REACH once added to the EU list.

Defra, together with the technical specialists at the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency, monitor the European Chemicals Agency's (ECHA's) work to introduce new substances of very high concern to the EU REACH Candidate List. Where this work is relevant for Great Britain, we will assess the scientific evidence and ECHA's rationale for taking this regulatory step. If inclusion on the UK REACH Authorisation List would be an effective risk management measure for the substance, we will take action to recommend it for inclusion on the UK Candidate List of substances of very high concern.