The most anticipated developments for 2024 in UK chemicals regulation are the long-awaited publication of the UK’s Chemicals Strategy, and a consultation on the UK government’s alternative transitional registration model (ATRm). In November 2023, a policy paper was issued outlining the government’s high-level plans for ATRm, but the questions and details for stakeholders are still unknown.
Since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the framework for the regulation, evaluation, authorisation, and restriction of chemicals in Great Britain (UK REACH) has operated independently from the EU regime (EU REACH continues to apply in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework, which we have recently written about here).