The UK government has publisheda Technical Notice on how a no-deal Brexit may impact on the regulation of UK chemical companies and those importing chemicals into the UK.

The Technical Notice, published 24 September 2018, states that in the event of a no-deal Brexit the government will establish a UK regulatory framework for chemicals using its powers under the EU Withdrawal Act 2018. Thislegislation would preserve the REACH regime as far as possible and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would be the lead UK regulatory authority undertaking the functions currently performed by European Chemicals Authority (ECHA).

The UK regime wouldmonitor and evaluate the impact of chemicals on human health and the environment so that existing standards of protection are maintained; minimise disruption to the supply of chemicals; and enable the registration of new chemicals through a UK IT system that is similar to the existing EU IT system.

The technical notice also states that in a no-deal scenario the UK would not be legally committed to medium or long-term regulatory alignment with the EEA.

The technical notice does however admit that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, UK-based companies registered with REACH would no longer be able to sell into the EEA market without transferring their registrations to an EEA-based organisation.Importers and UK downstream users currently importing chemicals from an EEA country would face new registration requirements under the UK regime replacing REACH. UK downstream users would not be able to rely on authorisation decisions addressed to companies in the remaining EEA countries.

To minimise the obviousdisruption to the supply of chemicals, the Government says that therewould be a transition period whereexisting REACH registrations held by UK-based companies would be “grandfathered” directly into the UK regime replacing REACH. These registrations would need to be validated with the HSE by opening an account in the new UK IT system and providing some basic information on the existing registration within 60 days of the UK leaving the EU. Companies would then have two years to provide the HSE with the data that supported their original EU registration and is held on the ECHA IT system.

At the same time, the Government promises a “light-touch”notification process to allow UK companies that do not hold a REACH registration and that currently import chemicals from the EEA by relying on a registration held by an EEA-based company to continue to do so without a break. These companies would thenhave 180 days from the date of exit to notify the HSE and provide some basic data on the imported chemicals. Full registration would need to be undertaken at a later date to be determined following a review of the process.All existing authorisations for using higher-risk chemicals that are held by UK companies would be grandfathered into the new UK system.The information and data needed would be the same for both separate registrations that businesses will have to make with the ECHA and HSE if wanting to place new chemicals on both the EEA and UK markets.

The technical notice alsostates that UK companies with existing REACH registrations that want to maintain EEA market access should refer to guidance on the ECHA website. Their registrations may need to be transferred to an appropriate EEA-based entity (such as an affiliate or an OR).

UK companies that want to register new chemicals for the EEA market after the UK leaves the EU would need to register those with ECHA via their EU customers or aRepresentative.