Member

It is useful to put this SI in context. Chemicals regulation is often referred to as one of the great failures of Brexit—a category, of course, in which competition is very fierce. England, Wales and Scotland officially exited Europe’s truly world-leading, though still inadequate, chemicals regulation, as the Minister acknowledged. We then created the copy-and-paste effort, UK REACH, and we have steadily fallen behind since. For example, zero substances of very high concern—SVHCs—have been added to the UK list since 2021, while the ECHA has added 44. I note that the UK has said it will potentially add the EU SVHCs to our list and it is working towards aligning sanitary and phytosanitary controls that will include chemicals regulation. The Minister referred to this, but I would appreciate any further information she can provide on the progress of that.