Following the UK's withdrawal from the EU on January 1, 2020, there was initially a transition phase until the end of 2020, during which EU law continued to apply to the UK in principle, but without British co-determination rights in the EU institutions. During this period, the United Kingdom continued to be part of the EU single market and the customs union.
The United Kingdom therefore had until 2021 to create its own regulations and laws on existing European directives and regulations. To a large extent, the United Kingdom based itself on or adopted the wording of the European legal texts. This circumstance is likely to have favored the announced continued use of the CE marking for 18 regulations of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) (see link).
However, there are signs of differences in the content of the EU and the UK, particularly regarding material compliance:
- RoHS (not part of the DBT announcement)
While the EU Commission continues to discuss deadline extensions for various RoHS exemptions, the UK has introduced its own exemption procedure, which appears to be much faster. The UK decisions on extension requests could be published before the European ones. They are therefore no longer based on the European wording, and the relevant decision factors may also differ.
In concrete terms, the first distinction is likely to be based on exemption 65 or EU RoHS Annex IV 1(a) "Lead and cadmium in ion-selective electrodes, including glass of pH electrodes".
- REACH
In the 11th round of recommendations by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for inclusion in Annex XIV, eight substance (groups) are being stirred up, including lead and diisohexyl phthalate. The British equivalent of the ECHA, the Health and Safety Executive, on the other hand, has only proposed diisohexyl phthalate for inclusion in Annex 14 of the restricted substances.
Differences in content are therefore becoming apparent, depending on the outcome of the final consultations.
Where the EU and UK REACH already differ is in the entries in Annexes XVII and 17 to the restricted substances and the respective candidate list. There have been no new entries for either list of substances in the UK since 2021.
These differences in content make a separate consideration of the substance lists and conditions unavoidable.
Do you have questions about REACH or RoHS in the UK? Feel free to contact us! Feel free to contact us!
Author
Linda Kritzler (B. A.)
Material & Environmental Compliance Consultant
