07 December 2021

It is now 10 months since BASA signed a joint letter from the UK chemical supply chain and its manufacturing customer base to Government (see attached), calling for a more practical application of the UK REACH regime. I can now confirm that the door has potentially re-opened after an announcement yesterday.

The links below take you to DEFRA’s reply to that February letter and to the gov.uk text, confirming the intention to delay UK REACH compliance deadlines whilst further work is done to “explore a new model for transitional (REACH) registrations” which would “reduce the need for replicating EU REACH data packages”.  

On the surface this seems to be very positive news and we will continue to work with CIA and other partners to see if a workable solution can be found, but at least there seems to be a committment to identify a more suitable solution for the structure of the UK chemicals market.

Deadline for UK REACH to be extended - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

UK REACH chemicals registration: letter to industry leaders (publishing.service.gov.uk)

We will provide more detail on content and process after further discussions with our Association partners.

Written by: Lorna Williams