If your business of putting chemical substances, biocidal products or active substances on the market is limited to the territory of the United Kingdom alone, as from the date of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal, your activity will no longer be subject to the provisions of the EU chemicals legislation. With regard to obligations arising from the CLP, BPR, PIC, and REACH Regulations, your legal obligations towards ECHA as the EU’s respective regulatory Agency will also cease. Instead, it will be the UK legislation that applies to you.

You will therefore need to follow the legislative developments in the UK. You are also advised to follow the UK withdrawal negotiations with the EU which may determine your future obligations.

If your business is in any way part of a supply chain that links you to businesses located within the 27 EU Member States remaining after the UK’s withdrawal, you will face some fundamental changes. You will find more detailed advice under the respective headings of these Q&A pages.

Yes. With its withdrawal from the EU, the United Kingdom will become a so-called “third country”. The ECHA Helpdesk regularly replies to enquiries from companies based outside the EU/EEA. After the UK withdrawal, UK-based companies should address ECHA via the dedicated contact form.

As from the date of withdrawal, the UK will no longer have the obligation to maintain a national helpdesk to provide advice and assistance on matters governed by the EU’s CLP, BPR or REACH Regulations. You are advised to check with the UK authorities if they will nonetheless provide such advice in practice. You may also wish to address your industry association in the UK

As a company based in the EU-27, the obligations flowing from the EU chemicals legislation will continue to apply to you. Your interactions with UK-based business partners, however, will be impacted by the UK withdrawal, as the United Kingdom will become a so-called “third country”. Consequently, you may face new and different UK rules on the import and use of chemical substances. You may also need to adapt your interaction in supply chains involving your UK-based business partners. The Q&A sections on the BPR, CLP, PIC and REACH Regulations will provide you with more detailed guidance in that regard.  

ECHA decisions concerning UK-based companies will only apply until the date on which the UK withdrawal takes effect and the United Kingdom ceases to be an EU Member State.

If you, as a UK-based company and an addressee of an ECHA decision, decide to challenge that decision or have already challenged it before the Board of Appeal, this may mean that the contested ECHA decision will then cease to have legal effect. In this case, unless the appellant provides evidence as to the existence of a material interest in ECHA’s Board of Appeal continuing to handle its appeal, the appeal proceedings may be discontinued, as there would be no need for the Board of Appeal to rule on such an appeal.

The Q&As on this website solely provide advice on the impact of the UK withdrawal in relation to the chemicals legislation that ECHA manages. You will need to find information on its other effects on supply chains across the external frontier of the EU (e.g., customs, tariffs and quotas, rules of origin, standardisation, rules on transport from outside the EU, etc.) from other sources, such as the European Commission or your industry association. Such information is, for instance, contained in this “Notice to Stakeholders” of 10 January 2018 on the “Withdrawal of the United Kingdom and EU Rules in the Field of Industrial Products”, published on the webpages of the European Commission

Pursuant to Article 8(2) of Regulation (EU) No 649/2012 on the export and import of hazardous chemicals, exporters are required to notify their exports 35 days before the expected date of export. To cover exports taking place in the first 35 days from the withdrawal date if there is no withdrawal agreement, a procedure will be reactivated to allow EU27-based exporters to notify the planned export to the United Kingdom in advance of the withdrawal date. These export notifications will take effect if the United Kingdom is, as of the withdrawal date, a third country without a withdrawal agreement entering into force on that date.

Instructions on how to proceed are described in the document “How to notify PIC exports to the UK in the absence of a decision on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU”