United Kingdom’s (UK) Chemicals regulatory framework (UK REACH) is effective from 1st January 2021. United Kingdom (UK) will no longer be a part of European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) or the European (EU) regime from the 1st January 2021. Instead UK will have new REACH system for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization or Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). All manufactures and distributes of chemicals (Substances or Mixtures) in UK need to comply with the new regulatory framework for chemicals.
All the manufacturers and importers of the UK market are required to register their chemicals under UK REACH system. The registration of EU REACH regime will no longer be valid to do business in UK market. Chemical manufacturers and importers need to transfer their registration to an EU/EEA-based organization. EU REACH registrations held by the UK based companies will carry across directly into UK REACH. The UK based companies need to submit their basic information to UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by 30th April 2021, using the UK REACH IT system, ‘Comply with UK REACH’, from 1stJanuary 2021.
A company that is currently importing chemicals from an EU/EEA country and do not hold an EU REACH registration need to ensure that the chemicals (substances or mixtures) purchased are covered by a valid UK REACH registration. UK based companies holding EU REACH registration can continue exporting chemicals (substances or mixtures) to EU/EEA markets by transferring their registration to an EU/EEA based entity or their importers can be a registrant of EU REACH.
A company can get more information from The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) explaining how to transfer their UK held EU REACH registrations before 1st January 2021.
If an EU/EEA based company is importing chemicals into UK, the company is required to have a valid UK REACH registration. The registration can be done through their UK entity or through UK importer. If the EU/EEA company has any kind of obligations on registration through a UK based entity, their UK customers will retain their downstream user status.
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