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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the financial cost to businesses of compliance with UK REACH regulations.

We recognise that businesses may incur additional costs as a result of the transition to an independent UK regime, and to maintain their access to EU markets.

The main costs for business will be accessing the data they need to support a registration for the GB market. These costs will vary depending on the ease and extent to which the company in question can obtain the data, which will be a matter of commercial negotiation. It is therefore difficult to put a single meaningful estimate on these costs, though our estimates broadly align with those of industry.

The extension to the deadlines for data submission we recently announced allows industry more time to adapt and comply with UK REACH. This is particularly beneficial to SMEs who are more likely to have smaller tonnages, giving them up to 6 years and 300 days to supply the data. If the extra time does not enable industry to agree data access at lower cost, it will enable the costs to be spread over a longer period and reduce the need for companies to redirect resources onto REACH compliance.