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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential economic effect on the chemicals industry of regulatory divergence from the EU.

When we leave the EU we will bring Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) into UK law. This will mean that any decision we take as an independent regime will be consistent with the fundamental aims and principles of REACH and based on rigorous assessment of the scientific evidence. We will not change what REACH sets out to achieve, including a high level of protection of human health and the environment.

The Government published “EU Exit: Long-term economic impacts” in November 2018. This paper provides estimates of the economic impact of a range of future trading relationships with the EU. One of the drivers of this estimate of impact is the cost of potential regulatory divergence.