The Global Chemical Inventory Search (GCIS) developed by CIRS Group supports users to search the latest inventory of chemicals globally by entering CAS number or substance name in both Chinese and English. It also provides obligation analysis for global chemical compliance. CIRS continuously monitors and updates to global chemical inventories regularly, trying to help users to know more details of compliance obligations of their substances.

On May 16, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched a public consultation on UK REACH, which remained open until July 25. The Alternative Transitional Registration model (ATRm) for UK REACH has been devised in response to the UK government’s impact assessment, which was published in 2023 and estimated that registering substances under UK REACH would cost industry £2 billion by 2030. The consultation sets out proposals to reduce costs for businesses moving from EU to UK REACH with reductions to duplication of data. It also contains proposals to introduce further protections against unnecessary animal testing. The ATRm specifically focuses on the submission of data for transitional substances – this covers substances that were “grandfathered”, New Registration for Existing Substances (NRES), or included in a downstream user import notification (DUIN).

According to information that the British Coatings Federation (BCF) distributed to its members, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recently launched a public consultation on changes to the administrative fees for UK REACH registrations, with a deadline of September 16, 2024.

On June 24, 2024, the UK's CLP authority, HSE, announced that it has granted legal effect to 88 chemical substances listed in the UK's Mandatory Classification and Labelling (GB MCL) list. This update took effect immediately upon its release and complies with regulations. The updates are based on the 14th and 15th Adaptations to Technical Progress (ATP), which update the CLP Regulation, issued by the European Commission.

In February 2024, UK‘s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced that the expiry date of all biocide active substances expiring between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2026 would be extended to 31 January 2027. This amendment impacts up to 110 active substances, with the expiration dates of 46 active substances having been formally prolonged.

HSE, the GB CLP Agency, is proposing to update the status of 90 substances in GB mandatory classification and labeling (GB MCL). It is scheduled to be effective in April 2024. These 90 substances are from the 14th and 15th ATP (Adaptation to Technical Progress, which was used to update the EU CLP Regulation) released by the European Commission. These two ATPs were published and came into force before the end of the transition period of Brexit and the HSE has already added these substances to the GB MCL list.

On June 28, 2023, the UK published the REACH (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (No.722) which extends the legislative deadlines for registrants to submit information by three years. The REACH (Amendment) Regulations shall enter into force on July 19, 2023. That is to say, from July 19, 2023, there will be new transitional periods and dossier submission deadlines will be extended to October 27, 2026, October 27, 2028, and October 27, 2030, based on different tonnage bands.

With the first UK REACH submission deadline (October 2023) approaching, the UK government has released a consultation on extending the current submission deadlines. According to the consultation results published on November 29, 2022, 82% of respondents selected to extend the deadline by three years.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) received an application for authorization of two substances from Roche Diagnostics Switzerland. From 9 August 2022, HSE has asked for public comments on the scientific and technological information on alternatives or processes of these two substances. The deadline for comments is 4 October 4, 2022.

On 13 April 2022, the United Kingdom notified WTO of a technical trade measure related to toys and cosmetics, with the notification number G/TBT/N/GBR/47. This notified Regulation amends Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011 to prohibit the use of specific allergenic fragrances in Toys. It also restricts the permitted levels of aluminium in toys and the use of aniline, and formaldehyde in toys intended for use by children under 36 months or in other toys intended to be placed in the mouth. The amendments shall enter into force on 15 October 2022.