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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of applying the EU’s REACH Regulation (1907/2006); and what assessment they made, if any, of that cost compared to the risk-based regime that predated REACH.

In 2006, Defra produced a Partial Impact Assessment ahead of the implementation of EU REACH [please see attached]. It forecasts the cost to UK industry of implementing EU REACH to be £404m. The costs associated with supporting HSE in its role as the UK competent authority under EU REACH since it came into force are estimated at around £15m. A comparative assessment of these costs and the regime that predated EU REACH, is not available.

In 2018, the European Commission published an evaluation of EU REACH. It found that costs to industry for the first two registration deadlines amounted to €2.3- 2.6 billion. Dossier evaluation costs were estimated at €200 million. Restriction costs were estimated at €170 million per year.