The UK officially left the European Union at the end of January this year, with an UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement in place. As a result of this we are now in a transition period where essentially most EU rules and regulations continue to apply until 31st December 2020. As a UK based company dealing with European chemicals regulations the transition period and what may follow afterwards clearly impacts some of the work we do and can have major implications for our clients.

For us the biggest impacts are for our Only Representative services and for our clients it will be the import/export relationship between the UK and the EU and what this means for current and future registrations.

The politics of BREXIT are complicated and we cannot know the final picture until any prospective trade deals are finalised and passed through the respective parliaments, but given the rhetoric coming from the UK government, it seems prudent to plan for an outcome where the UK goes its own way with no trade deal in place by the end of December. In this case:

• The UK ends the transition period with no trade deal: EU REACH will no longer apply in the UK. ECHA and HSE FAQs are in the process of being re-written, you can view the relevant page on the ECHA website.
• UK REACH will apply from 1st January 2021; legislation can be viewed here.
• In the main UK REACH mirrors EU REACH
• EU REACH registrations held by UK companies will cease to be valid in the EU after 31st December 2020. Some registrations may be moved to EU legal entities or transferred to EU Only Representatives to preserve the EU registration whilst maintaining the ability to grandfather under UK REACH.

What are BCS doing?

We have moved forward with our contingency planning and our new company, BCS Only Representative Services Ltd is trading in the Republic of Ireland – this enables us to continue providing Only Representative coverage both in the EU and the UK whatever the outcome of BREXIT trade deal negotiations.

What are we advising our clients?

We understand that deciding when or whether to move your OR appointments (or REACH registrations) will not be a simple matter as there are many issues and uncertainties still to be resolved by both the EU and the UK. However, it seems that the most likely scenario is for no trade deal to be concluded by the end of December 2020. In this scenario EU REACH registrations held by UK companies will cease to be valid in the EU after 31st December 2020. Some registrations may be moved to EU legal entities or transferred to EU Only Representatives to preserve the EU registration whilst keeping the ability to grandfather your registrations into UK REACH. You should act or begin to make preparations to preserve your EU REACH registrations according to your position in the supply chain and whether you will require EU coverage going forwards:

• UK Manufacturer: you cannot transfer at the moment, but you can search for a suitable EU Only Representative and put in place contracts and paperwork to be ready to transfer on the final day of the transition period.
• UK Importer: you can transfer now to an EU legal entity and maintain the ability to grandfather under UK REACH. ECHA rules and charges on LE transfer may apply.
• UK Only Representative: you can transfer now to an EU Only Representative and maintain the ability to grandfather under UK REACH. ECHA rules and charges on OR transfer will apply.

We aim to expand and update the information on this page over the coming months as well as on our blog posts.  We hope it will be useful to you as we navigate the uncertainties that BREXIT has introduced.  If you want to talk anything through in more detail please feel free to contact us by phone or email and we will be happy to chat to you.