Chemicals: Regulation

(asked on 8th January 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the cost to the UK chemicals industry of the new UK REACH system.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 18th January 2021

The main costs to the GB chemicals industry in transitioning to UK REACH will result from obtaining the data needed to support registrations 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. We agree with industry that the costs may be substantial, though until business discussions to access REACH data start in earnest, we cannot firm up an estimate of the likely costs.

These costs could have been mitigated in part through an agreement with the EU on an arrangement to share EU REACH registration data held by the European Chemicals Agency. While the UK was successful in agreeing a chemicals annex as part of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, the EU did not wish to progress the UK proposal on REACH registration data within that annex.


To help mitigate the costs of the transition to UK REACH we have recently extended the deadlines for businesses to provide the full registration data, allowing industry more time to adapt to the new compliance obligations and spread costs over a longer period


The cost to Government in establishing UK REACH includes establishing the new Comply with UK REACH service and putting in place the capacity in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Environment Agency and Defra to operate the new regime. We anticipate spending around £20 million this financial year on the development, operation and maintenance of the REACH IT system and staff resourcing.

Ministers from Defra, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and HSE have an established forum for engagement with the chemicals sector through the Chemicals EU Exit and Trade Group, which meets on a regular basis. Defra has firmly established relationships with a large number of Trade Associations and industry representatives. We have closely engaged with industry throughout the development of UK REACH, listening to concerns and, where feasible, adapting policy in response in order to help manage the transition in a pragmatic way.

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