BCF highlights Poison Centre Brexit mishap

Industry was consistently told by Government that Annex VIII of CLP would not be carried over into UK law after Brexit. Members were largely happy with that because compliance in the UK would have meant a lot of extra administration and cost, especially in the coatings sector. So, since the UK left the

EU, companies have only been required to submit voluntary

SDS data to the National Poison

Information Service (NPIS).

The first we heard of any potential issues with this came in February. Some companies received emails from the NPIS saying that Annex VIII had in fact been carried over into UK law and that Unique Formula Identifier (UFI) registrations would be needed for future submissions but also retrospectively to January 2021!

BCF and others sought to clarify the situation. With no formal statement from Government forthcoming, we engaged with MPs, one of whom wrote on our behalf to Jacob Rees-Mogg in his role as ‘Brexit Opportunities Minister.’ We received a reply on 27th May saying:

‘information on Annex VIII was subject to review’

before it could be published.

Finally, on 20th June, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) – responsible for Poison Centre Notifications (PCNs) - announced:

‘Annex VIII has been inadvertently retained following the UK’s exit from the EU. The Annex VIII within GP CLP is therefore currently in force. DHSC and its executive agencies, supported by the Department for BEIS and the HSE are now working to rectify this error.’

HSE is the body responsible for enforcing GB CLP and are aware that the Annex has been retained. HSE will continue to maintain a pragmatic and proportionate response to enforcement... HSE will look at each case on its own merit and will consider a range of factors when it takes enforcement decisions…

The Government is now looking to launch a consultation on whether to revoke the Annex, but this could take some months to complete, analyse, and legislate on.

In seeking clearer guidance from the HSE on how they would enforce, BCF was told, in addition to the DHSC statement, that:

‘…HSE will … consider a range of factors when taking enforcement decisions, these would include the unique circumstances around the implementation of Annex VIII (as well as the level of risk and the efforts made by duty holders to achieve compliance)…HSE will [be] focused on those activities which give rise to the most serious risks or where the hazards are least well controlled.

‘Notably, at the current time, both the GOV.UK and HSE websites continue to advise the voluntary submission of SDSs, and the NPIS website itself still says ‘As of 3rd February 2022 this section is under review. Please check back later for updated guidance.’

BCF understands the websites will be ‘updated in due course’ although there is currently no timeframe for that. It is possible there will be no updates until the consultation on revocation is complete.

As things stand, it would seem appropriate to continue to follow the advice still showing on the various websites. Besides, it is unclear how PCNs with UFIs would be made as it is not clear if the UK IT infrastructure is even in place to do so.

All in all, our message remains ‘don’t panic.’ It seems the Government is intending to revoke what it has inadvertently brought into law. And we at BCF will be lobbying to see this is done as soon as possible so we end up with the regulatory position that was always intended. w