British Coatings Federation CEO Tom Bowtell has give evidence to the House of Lords EU Environment Sub-Committee on the subject of Government plans for UK Reach.
In his comments to the committee on 7 October Bowtell explained how UK Reach, as currently configured, will significantly and negatively impact on the coatings and printing inks sector – as well as the chemicals industry more widely.
His evidence stressed that if the UK Government fails to negotiate data-sharing as part of a chemicals annexe to the EU Free Trade Agreement, the resulting need to register chemical substances into a separate UK Reach database will cost industry over £1bn. This would put UK coatings manufacturing – and sectors further downstream – at a significant competitive disadvantage to their EU competitors.
During the Committee evidence session he also highlighted the risk of the UK losing Foreign Direct Investment if it is no longer an attractive place to manufacturer chemical-based products like coatings;
Bowtell welcomed plans to extend the registration period for substances into UK Reach from two to up to six years as a step in the right direction. However, while this measure is of some help it does not solve the underlying problems of a duplicate Reach regime. He therefore called on the Government to think again about the structure of UK Reach from 1 January 2021 if it cannot negotiate data sharing as part of an FTA.
Commenting on the evidence session, Bowtell said: “It was an important opportunity to make sure the committee members understood how UK Reach is going to impact on downstream users of chemicals in the UK – like the coatings and printing inks sectors. Additional costs and reduced availability of substances from which to manufacture are going to be genuine consequences of the current plans for the UKs new chemicals regime. We therefore urged the committee to prompt the Government to publish its economic impact assessment of its plans for UK Reach so that we can see what assumptions it is making its decisions upon.
“With the clock ticking down until the Brexit Transition Period ends the UK Government needs to recognise that unless data sharing with the EU can be agreed as part of an FTA, the way UK Reach is currently configured will hit industry hard. There is a real risk the extra regulatory burden will lead to a reduction in foreign direct investment to the UK: moreover, the extra costs and added bureaucracy will hit SMEs and downstream users like those in the coatings and printing inks sectors particularly heavily. We need to see more radical changes made to UK Reach, beyond the extension to registration periods already agreed, to mitigate the effects on business.”
