By Vanessa Zainzinger2021-05-10T07:17:00+01:00
As the UK’s legal system finds its feet post-Brexit, stakeholders have mixed feelings about the changes it could bring
Four months into the UK being fully divorced from the EU, the chemical industry has had its first taste of operating under a separate legal system for chemicals. But rather than get their teeth into a fully thought-out version of the country’s own Reach (registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals) legislation, companies are facing a law that is just beginning to evolve.
Initially a direct copy of its EU counterpart, the practicalities and consequences of implementing UK Reach (the law’s official name, despite applying only in England, Scotland and Wales) are playing out gradually. The last few months were defined by companies grandfathering their EU chemical registrations to the UK system. If done by the 30 April deadline, this guaranteed continued access to the British market.