59880 · UK public procurement notice

The EU REACH Regulation transformed the regulation of chemicals within the EU, providing detailed rules governing the use of chemicals. It therefore impacts not only on manufacturers and importers of chemicals, but also on the myriad downstream user sectors. At the same time, REACH is a key pillar in achieving a high level of protection for human health and the environment and has clearly delivered benefits. It directly regulates chemical use through the processes of registration (and evaluation), restriction and authorisation (including the Candidate List). These requirements are retained in UK REACH, which will also retain some of the other the key principles of EU REACH, including “no data, no market”, the different REACH roles (including ORs) and PPORD. In contrast though, there will be no SIEF formation requirements although, a pre-registration substance inquiry system has been developed to facilitate the principle of “once substance one registration”. There are obviously also modifications to REACH processes to customise them to the domestic context. Although the UK has committed to following EU REACH in the short term, it has not made a long-term commitment to regulatory alignment.

Importantly, the direct regulatory requirements of REACH represent only part of the total burden on companies. Concerns regarding regulatory compliance and security of supply have been raised by companies, as have the potential new costs of UK REACH for supply chains. These may be exacerbated at present due to the additional pressures and impacts that Covid-19 have placed on some key chemicals using sectors.

As UK REACH comes into force in January 2021, it is necessary to develop a UK REACH Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Strategy. This will involve a scoping phase to pull together existing evidence regarding the implementation of REACH, setting out UK REACH’s objectives, intended outcomes and operational mechanisms and utilising the outputs of this phase to design a M&E framework that will enable decision makers and stakeholders to gather and analyse evidence to answer key evaluation questions