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 potential merits of bringing forward proposals to amend UK REACH to (a) allow chemical substances already in the EU REACH database to be grandfathered in with minimal data sets, such as Safety Data Sheet information added to the new independent UK REACH database, and (b) require only new substances, or substances specifically identified as of concern to the UK regulator, requiring the provision of full data packages.

Our fundamental priority is to protect the environment and human health. UK REACH places the responsibility on industry to identify and manage the risks posed by chemicals to the environment and human health, including demonstrating how substances can be used safely and communicating this information down the supply chain.

In February, the Government received a letter from several chemical trade associations which raised concerns over the transitional costs associated with UK REACH, particularly the costs associated with accessing the data to support registrations, and made a proposal for how these could be mitigated. A working group of policy officials and industry representatives met regularly, to consider this and other related proposals.

The Secretary of State met with industry representatives on 21 July 2021 to further discuss its proposals and emphasised the need for robust systems that are in line with the fundamental principles of UK REACH. We will formally respond to the proposals shortly.