Thread by @pmdfoster

🚨🚨🧪🧑‍🔬⚗️🧪👨‍🔬⚗️🚨🚨Campaigners call on UK not to weaken post-#brexit plans for chemical regulation - it’s a ding-dong between industry and environmental/health groups, with U.K. govt in the middle...my latest for ⁦@FinancialTimes⁩. Stay with me /1 on.ft.com/3rlNb4u

@FinancialTimes This is one of those post-#brexit bellwether stories because it points to the reality of what 'taking back control' means.

So yes, we have control, but that means, as @DavidHenigUK tells me, government has to decide between domestic pressure groups. It can't blame Brussels /2

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK IN this case, that means @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk choosing between the chemical industry lobby and the environmental/health lobbies over how to build the UK's new 'sovereign' chemicals regulatory regime. Sounds techy, it is, but chemicals are in EVERYTHING, so it matters /3

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk Regular readers will recall that UK is planning to create it's own UK REACH database for chemicals, essentially mirroring the EU system - but last month as @FinancialTimes
reported the industry pushed back. Said it was too expensive. Would cost £1bn. /4

https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1359559133196931072

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk Lots of big names co-ordinated by Chemical Industries Association @See_Chem_Bus argued that duplicating the EU system in the UK (re-registering chemicals with full testing datasets that are expensive/hard to recreate) was unnecessary. Why not take a risk-based approach? /5

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus But NOW, just as govt starts consultations with industry this week, 20+ leading green groups, including @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK have written to minister saying this would be a very bad idea /6

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK They argue that the CIA 'risk-based' approach is:

a) setting a dangerous precedent and would "significantly reduce the ability of the regulator to take action to protect the environment and public and workers’ health from hazardous chemicals" /7

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK And b) would breach the basic 'no data, no market [access] principle that the UK govt has already signed up in the Environment Bill. This is a now a test - they say - of the @michaelgove @BorisJohnson commitment to a 'green Brexit' /8

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson This, my brothers in #Brexitology, is the new frontline of the UK's exit from the EU... a heady mixture of substantive policy and politics that is going to keep industry, NGOs, lobbyists and consumer groups busy indeed. Because government can no use Brussels as a shield /9

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson In this case, it is not clear to me who is correct.

The Chemical industry basically wants to 'grandfather in' existing EU REACH registrations; says it is mad/costly to replicate them (having already spend £500m they will now need to spend £1bn to stand still, essentially). /10

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson The word is that @KwasiKwarteng @beisgovuk is sympathetic to their pleading. The govt has already extended deadlines for full registration to 6 years for some chemicals, so is it *really* to say that HSE calls for full data where it has real grounds for concern? /11

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson @KwasiKwarteng Well, yes, say the environmental groups.

Because a system where a regulator has to go begging to industry for data will inevitably lead to delays and lower protections for human health and the environment.

That's WHY the EU created the REACH 'no data, no market' system /12

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson @KwasiKwarteng Word is that @DefraGovUK is much less keen on the industry proposals, and isn't even clear whether agreeing to the lighter touch approach wouldn't require the flagship Environment Bill to be re-written, a moment campaign groups will sure pounce on. /13

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson @KwasiKwarteng It's at this point that you start to see why #Brexit should have come with a complimentary box of Nurofen - rival Whitehall Departments, industry/competitiveness issues and environmental/health concerns all scrapping away. /14

@FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMTrust @PAN_UK @michaelgove @BorisJohnson @KwasiKwarteng We think of #Brexit often in terms of external friction - borders, mobility etc - but as @DavidHenigUK points out, its actually a mix of domestic/external policy issues that each have bearing on the other. What the UK does on chemicals will impact trade discussions elsewhere /15

This might all sound abstruse/wonky etc but it can quickly - as we've seen with campaigns over food standards/farming trade - get VERY political.

Groups like @GreenerUK_ are skilled campaigners and often their side of the argument is easier to communicate than industry's /16

@GreenerUK_ But there are genuine issues to be weighed in the balance here - jobs, competitiveness, public health - and the government (this one and future ones) are going to have get much better at communicating and explaining, developing trust if they want to take balanced decisions /17

@GreenerUK_ You can read the full environmental/health groups letter here - signatories below. /18

chemtrust.org/wp-content/upl…

@GreenerUK_ The Chemical industry @See_Chem_Bus
plan/arguments are summarised here. ..and in the thread I linked to up top. They too have an impressive list of signatures. Companies that employ a lot of people./19

https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1359562125434314753?s=20

@GreenerUK_ @See_Chem_Bus Chemicals is just one area of contention - these kinds of issues/fights are going to apply across the regulatory waterfront. This is the gristle and sinew of #Brexit

Wonks can check this (readable) sector-by-sector @UKandEU
report. Good weekend. ENDS

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…