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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the European Chemicals Agency's report entitled Investigation report to support the Commission on the preparation of a restriction proposal for the use and presence of CMR 1A or 1B substances in childcare articles based on REACH Article 68(2), published on 31 October 2023.

The UK has implemented its own independent chemicals regulatory framework, including UK REACH, from 1 January 2021.

UK REACH retains the same fundamental approach and key principles of EU REACH, ensuring a high level of protection for human health and the environment in the UK. Now that we have left the EU, we are responsible for introducing our own regulatory measures, and these reflect GB-specific circumstances and effectively address the risks which apply in GB. In so doing we remain aware of regulatory activity taking place within EU REACH.