HSE gives industry 5 year extension on biocides

In the past few editions of Covered we have spent a lot of time detailing our talks with the UK Government on the subject of UK REACH. However, we have not been solely focussed on that topic as we know that other post-EU chemicals regulations will affect many, or probably most, of our members to an almost equal extent as REACH.

Accordingly, we have also been pushing Government to take action on biocides. BCF has led on arranging two specific meetings, along with other representatives of the chemicals sector, with senior members of the HSE to explore their plans for biocides in the UK. In the first, we asked the HSE to set out their general plans for how the UK’s independent regulatory regime would look as regards biocides. In the second meeting we raised more specific issues affecting members, including the time being taken to make decisions in the UK, as well as the need to ensure that suitable active substances remained available for future use in members’ products, especially given that number has been eroded steadily in recent years.

We have recently received what we think is good news for members. The HSE has informed us that the law for biocidal products is going to be amended, introducing temporary changes to GB biocides statutory application processing times. Following the end of the EU exit transition period, businesses were required to resubmit product applications to HSE by various deadlines, the first of which would have been the end of this year. However, in the HSE’s own words: “Due to the large number of resubmissions received, a new law is being introduced in GB to temporarily extend the statutory deadlines for processing product applications under the GB Biocidal Products Regulation for a period of up to 5 years.”

The new law is planned to come into force on 31 December 2022, subject to parliamentary procedures.

Ultimately, this means that biocidal products on the market in GB awaiting decision on their application to remain there legally until they are processed by HSE. After 5 years the statutory deadline will revert to the existing length.

This is not perfect – yet another case of kicking the can down the road to some degree. However, it does give certainty and will mean members can be sure they can continue to operate with their current suite of products for the next five years.