On Tuesday 26 March the REACH Statutory Instrument (SI), which makes provision for ‘UK REACH’ to be brought into law if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement, was approved by the House of Lords, having already been approved in the House of Commons. This means that this secondary legislation will now be incorporated into the UK statute book, so that in the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario, UK REACH regulations will be in place for exit day.
However DEFRA has since laid a short amending SI that will address two specific concerns raised by industry about ensuring continuity of registrations of imported chemicals at the point of no-deal exit. Since laying the REACH SI on 9 January, a number of stakeholders have raised two technical points regarding the scope of the ‘notification’ transitional provisions for existing UK Downstream Users. In response to industry’s concerns and suggestions, DEFRA has laid an amending SI to clarify that:
The amending SI and explanatory notes are available here. The SI will now make its way through the parliamentary processes, with the intention that it will come into force at the point that the UK leaves the EU, supporting continuity for UK-EU supply chains. Guidance on the HSE website will be updated to reflect these provisions.