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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the UK Competent Authority will continue to have access to the EU-REACH dossiers, including data on chemical substances, after the 31 of December 2020; and what steps he has taken to ensure the availability of relevant data to support companies wishing to trade in chemicals with EU member states in the event that the transition period ends without the UK reached an agreement on future relations with the EU.

The UK proposed a data-sharing mechanism as part of a chemicals annex for a UK-EU Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. We believe that this would be in the interest of UK and EU businesses but to date the EU has not engaged with us on this.

If the EU is not prepared to agree this, we will ensure that the Health and Safety Executive as the UK Agency will be able to carry out its regulatory functions under UK REACH. UK companies that have already registered a chemical with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will be “grandfathered” into the UK system with no break in their legal access to the market. Those registrants would then have 120 days to provide UK authorities with some initial information. They must then fully register by supplying complete dossiers within two, four or six years from 28 October 2021.

GB-based companies that trade in the EU will need to continue to ensure that they meet EU REACH requirements from 1 January 2021. ECHA has provided guidance on this which can be found here. This guidance will need to be followed by GB businesses that trade in the EU regardless of the outcome of negotiations on a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. We remain committed to supporting businesses following the end of the transition period.