At BCS, the health of our staff and clients is important to us, and as a result the majority of our staff are working from home in line with the latest UK Government advice.  We have also cancelled all travel plans for the immediate future and will aim to conduct all meetings via telephone/web conference.

You can still contact us through all the usual channels (phone, email etc.) and we hope that everyone is managing through the current situation and most importantly, staying healthy.

The Statutory Instrument (SI) in relation to UK chemical regulations post Brexit has been recently updated. This is the second time the original SI has been updated and the changes made can be found here.

A key change relates to the ability to ‘grandfather’ substances. Previously, if companies had a valid UK based registration they could grandfather existing substances as long as a registration was held by the UK entity 2 years prior to exit day.

As the exit day has moved a few times (and could possibly move again) they have now changed this 2 year period to a fixed date; 29 March 2017. 

This now makes decisions about whether/when to transfer registrations to an EU Legal Entity slightly easier as you would no longer be at risk of accidently falling outside the 2 year period if the Brexit deadline keeps moving, and you will maintain the ability to granfather your registration into UK REACH.

We’ve had a while without any BREXIT related updates, but in our opinion, it is looking increasingly likely that a “no-deal” exit is on the cards for October 31^st.  With that in mind, what is the current state of the legal texts for UK REACH?

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
sets the entry into force date for UK REACH as the day after exit day (now likely to be 1 November 2019)

The following Statutory Instruments (SI) details the amendments to the REACH Regulation (EC 1907/2006):

The REACH etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019 No. 758)
adds REACH into UK Law after withdrawal from the EU.  Provides all the technical details for UK REACH.

The REACH etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) (No. 2) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019 No. 858)
amending the previous SI (2019 No. 758) to clarify the provisions for UK downstream users relying on their notification requirements being fulfilled by an appointed OR who had an existing REACH registration

Another month and we are still living in BREXIT limbo!

Hopefully the politicians can finally get their act together and next week’s votes will provide some desperately needed certainty.

On the plus side, ECHA have clarified procedures for UK companies to transfer registrations to an EU-27 legal entity where this is possible.  (Link here).

The ECHA window for beginning transfers is due to open on 12^th March.

The UK have said that the time to notify your substances to qualify for the ‘grandfather’ clause under UK REACH has been extended to 120 days (from 60).  This is primarily because it is looking unlikely that the UK IT system will be ready in time; the fall-back option is spreadsheet and email!

Good luck to all those struggling through the BREXIT mess.

As with many other industries, chemicals are not really any closer to knowing the answers before March 29th.

UK government have published a draft of a Statutory Instrument to replace REACH (see here) but it is only a draft and it is still not clear when we will need it.  This could be on March 29th (in the event of no-deal BREXIT) or after a transition period if we agree a deal.

There is no sign yet of a public beta version for the UK's equivalent of REACH IT and time is running out for this to be ready in time for the end of March.

The EU also have yet to finalise guidance; for example ECHA promised to clarify practical steps for UK manufacturers to transfer registrations to an EU-27 OR (FAQ 1466) in January 2019 but this has yet to be done.

A challenging time for any chemical companies, and while we cannot promise you answers, we can provide guidance on options to the best of our ability so please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.