After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 2 - BPR

After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 2 - BPR In this episode, we are joined by two HSE experts in Dr Nicola Gregg - Biocides Operational Policy Team Leader and Dr Pierre Cruse - International Chemicals Unit Team Leader. We discuss the changes that will have the greatest impact on businesses following the end of the UK Transition period, how to get an active substance approved in both the EU and GB and how companies can get on the GB version of Article 95. ----more----Visit our website for further information and detailed guidance on biocidal product regimes. If you have any concerns regarding UK Transition and changes to Biocide regimes, contact HSE at the earliest opportunity via [email protected]

Podcast Transcription Welcome to the latest HSE Podcast with me, Mick Ord. This month, with the help of our resident experts, we’ll be guiding you through the new Biocidal Products Regulations – that’s BPR to you and me - and how the new regulatory framework will affect your business as we leave the EU and the transition period comes to an end.We’ll be finding out what you should be doing now and will be required to do in the future under the new GB regulations and how that will affect companies in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Now we’ve left the EU, many of the functions currently being carried out by Europe will soon be transferred to Great Britain but certain EU functions have been removed and we’ll be highlighting these areas and explaining what you need to do to make sure you comply with the new arrangements. Over the next half hour or so we’ll be addressing many of the issues that are concerning businesses and pointing you in the right direction - so without further ado, let me introduce you to 2 people whose knowledge of the new BPR framework is second to none. Dr Nicola Gregg and Dr Pierre Cruse are both from the HSE. Nicola is team leader for Biocides Operational Policy in the HSE’s Chemicals Regulation Directorate and Pierre is team leader at the HSE’s International Chemicals Unit – his team is responsible for developing Government policy on biocides and also the CLP regulations – that‘s the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures.I’ll start with you if I may Pierre - Will the new GB framework for Biocides be the same as the EU framework?Pierre:I think the answer is in some ways yes and some ways no. From the 1st January next year, 2021, Great Britain is going to have its own independent regulatory framework for biocidal products. It’s going to reflect the current EU framework, the EU Biocidal Products Regulation, but they are going to operate independently of each other. Essentially, the rules and standards are going to be pretty much the same, but some elements to the framework won’t exist, basically those bits that refer to EU processes and institutions that we’ll no longer be dealing in the national system.Mick:So in what areas will it be different?Pierre:The Great Britain Biocidal Products Regulations – BPR – we call it a lift and shift of the EU’s BPR. What that means essentially is that we copied it into domestic law without any policy changes. The only bits that have changed are those which wouldn’t operate correctly in the new Great Britain context, as I say, the bits that refer to European Institutions, the European Chemicals Agency and the European Commission are examples of that. So for example ECHA, functions that previously sat with ECHA are now going to be transferred to Great Britain bodies, where we are still doing them, and commission decisions which used to be taken by the European Commission, they are now going to be taken by the Secretary of State with consent from Ministers in the Devolved Administrations.Mick:So what changes will have the greatest impact on businesses?Pierre:I’ll just run through some of the biggest changes and impacts for businesses. Perhaps the main one is if a company wants an authorisation in bo