Be prepared for UK REACH starting from 2021

The UK will exit the transition period on December 31, 2020.  From 2021, the EU REACH Regulation will be brought into UK law under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and this chemical regulation is also known as UK REACH. REACH, and related legislation, will be replicated in the UK with the necessary changes to make it functional from 1st January 2021. The key principles of the EU REACH Regulation will be retained in UK REACH.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will play a key role in the UK's chemicals regulatory process together with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA) to ensure the effective and safe management of chemicals to safeguard human health and the environment.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), early in September 2020, had announced tonnage band specific, staggered submission deadlines that will apply for the full submission of data. The full registration dossiers would hence need to be submitted within 2, 4 or 6 years, starting from October 28, 2021.

EU/EEA/non-UK manufacturers exporting to Great Britain may choose to appoint a GB-based OR to fulfil their UK REACH obligations. Substance registration via OR in this case will be considered as a new substance registration.  This would be classed as a new substance registration: full registration duties would apply, and the appropriate registration fee would be charged. If the EU/EEA/non-UK manufacturer’s GB-based OR registers within the relevant deadline, the GB importers would be treated as a downstream user under UK REACH, and would therefore not need to become registrants themselves. If the OR submits a notification of import or registers within 300 days of the end of the Transition Period, this will relieve their GB customer of the duty to notify the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) within 300 days. 

GB based downstream users or distributors may make use of the notification provision in the first instance, and consider further steps depending on their suppliers’ intentions in relation to the GB market. GB downstream users and distributors sourcing from the EU/EEA are advised to liaise with their suppliers, to ensure that a notification is completed by one or other party within 300 days of the end of the Transition Period. These measures apply only to existing UK downstream users or distributors under EU REACH who were, at any time in the 2-year period before 1st January 2021, already a downstream user or distributor under EU REACH established in the UK in relation to a substance.

According to the officials, an Only Representative (OR) will have to be a natural person or legal entity established physically in the UK and equipped with sufficient knowledge in the practical handling of the substances and information related to them; Appointed by a mutual agreement with a manufacturer, formulator or article producer, established outside the UK and responsible for complying with the legal requirements for importers under UK REACH.

Global Product Compliance (Europe) AB has already set up a UK based OR entity ‘GPC UK’, to support its existing and new potential clients, to be able to comply with the challenges posed because of Brexit on substance exports to the UK. 

For more information or queries, please write to us at compliance@uk.gpcregulatory.com