At the beginning of September the UK Government announced their plans for an independent chemicals’ regulatory framework, the so-called UK REACH. Here, Business Development Technologist at SPC, Jon Cutler, explains what UK REACH is and how SPC is proactive about complying with the legislation and supporting customers to do so.
As the Business Development Technologist at SPC, part of my role has been to make sure SPC only uses chemicals that comply with EU REACH legislation. This means that everything we produce – and everything we supply to our customers – is fully compliant. Now that the Government has revealed its vision for UK REACH, we will continue with our proactive approach by ensuring all chemicals purchased in the future comply with both EU REACH and UK REACH.
In their announcement of UK REACH, the UK Government listed the process and timescales of conversion from EU to UK REACH regulations. I have outlined these in the table (see right). In the meantime, we are very happy to discuss with customers any concerns related to the forthcoming UK REACH legislation and all of the ways we can support customers during the transition process.
Administered by the HSE, UK REACH will go live on the 1st January 2021. From then on, UK chemical manufacturers, importers and distributors will be required to comply with laws relating to registration of chemicals.
Deadlines for full submission of registrations are staggered for 2, 4 or 6 years. Starting from 28th October 2021, chemicals manufactured or imported at high tonnage, or with more hazardous properties, must be registered first.
EU REACH registrations held by UK companies can be ‘grandfathered’ directly into UK REACH. This means that UK companies holding an EU REACH (chemicals) registration may submit their EU REACH registration dossier data for UK REACH registration without further scrutiny. However, basic information for ‘grandfathered’ registrations is still required and needs to be submitted to the HSE by 30th April 2021, this is the date whereby registrants should provide notice of intent for the later 2, 4 or 6 years data submission.
UK companies importing chemicals but not holding the EU REACH registration will need to ensure a UK REACH registration in the future but can continue to import chemicals by completing a Downstream User Import Notification (DUIN) by 27th October 2021.
Deadlines for the subsequent submission of dossiers for each chemical is shown in the table.
The HSE on-line service ‘Comply with UK REACH’ will go live on 1st January 2021, when more detail is expected on the registration process.
