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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what resources his Department has allocated to the Health and Safety Executive to ensure it has capacity to consider whether (a) decisions and (b) developments in the European Chemicals Agency on hazardous chemicals should be implemented in UK REACH.

Under UK REACH, all existing EU REACH authorisations and restrictions will be carried over into UK law at the end of the transition period. There will therefore be no change in protection from dangerous chemicals that are currently prohibited from use.

From 1 January, the processes for the evaluation, authorisation and restriction under UK REACH will mirror the processes under EU REACH and will be used to assess and manage risks from chemicals in the same way. While we will not take divergent decisions for the sake of it, it would not be appropriate to automatically implement decisions that are taken by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) after the end of the transition period. This is because the impact of decisions on the UK will no longer be being considered. We can take ECHA’s decisions into account, but we will need to consider, in each case, whether they are right for the UK.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will operate as the UK’s Regulatory Agency. It is building capacity and capability to ensure that we have a robust and effective regulator in place from the point of transition. Recruitment of 130 additional staff, inclusive of scientists, administrators, occupational hygienists and socio-economists, is taking place in preparation for its expanded regulatory role on REACH and other chemicals regimes. This is the largest recruitment exercise ever undertaken in this area and underlines the importance and priority of chemical regulation to HSE. This recruitment and subsequent training, builds on the existing expertise HSE holds, having worked on some of the most complex dossiers under EU REACH.