Thread by @Jacob_oberg_EU

🚨"UK failure to create post-Brexit chemical regulations risks ‘irreparable damage". New important but grim #brexitreality story by @pmdfoster on the (failed) attempts by UKG to create an affordable post-Brexit regulatory regime for the chem industry. 🧵
ft.com/content/2d58ee…

1) "After Brexit, the UK quit the EU’s Reach chemical management system but has delayed the introduction of its own arrangements after a government impact assessment discovered it would cost the industry a [staggering] £2bn to duplicate the safety data already held in Brussels."

2) "However, attempts to broker a deal with industry to reduce the cost of re-registering 22,400 chemicals with a copycat UK “Reach” system run by the government’s Health and Safety Executive are failing to bear fruit".

3) "The industry argues it is needlessly expensive to duplicate registrations where chemicals have already passed safety tests in the EU but for legal and intellectual property reasons, the underlying data for legal for those registrations is not available to the UK regulator. "

4) "However, conservation and environmental groups have said that unless the UK regulator is in full possession of the data, it cannot regulate effectively." This year the UKG announced a three-year extension to deadlines for completing full UK Reach registrations but...

5) Industry and Chemical Industry Association tells that "deadline extensions were helpful they reflected the “very limited progress” in negotiations over UK Reach" and said they need " tangible progress . . . and we need it fast." /ends h/t @brexit_sham @BestForBritain