This page provides access to health and safety information relating to the onshore chemical manufacture and storage industry. This site relates to the following industries:
- oil refining and petrochemicals
- paints and coatings
- pharmaceuticals
- fertilisers
- compressed gases
- other general chemicals
The site does not cover the incidental use of chemicals in other places of work or the offshore oil and gas industry.
For the most up-to-date chemicals news for Northern Ireland please click on the link below:
UK-companies which are based in Northern Ireland
If your company is based in Northern Ireland REACH, CLP, the BPR, PIC and POPs regulations do apply to you. As a company located in Northern Ireland, you have access to several of ECHA’s IT tools needed to fulfil your obligations under the above-mentioned legislation.
However, in certain situations concerning poison centre notifications and biocidal products, IT systems provided by the UK authorities need to be used.
Transfers of chemicals from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are considered as imports into the EU, and the relevant obligations for importers under REACH, CLP, BPR, PIC and POPs apply.
Similarly, exports of chemicals from Northern Ireland to Great Britain are considered as exports from the EU, and the relevant obligations for exporters under PIC apply.
For more information please see the following link for a list of Question and Answers from the ECHA website:
Prior Informed Consent - Waivers
If you are a NI-based company planning to export a chemical listed in Part 2 or 3 of Annex I to the PIC Regulation, the importing country where you intend to export needs to give their consent before you can export the chemical. If the importing country does not respond to your designated national authority’s request for explicit consent, you may propose a waiver to the explicit consent requirement.
A new factsheet on waivers that can be found at the following link:
HSE Helpdesk contact details
Please see below the email addresses for the HSE helpdesk functions:
Plant Protection Products: CRD.Information.Management@hse.gov.uk
REACH & CLP: ukreachca@hse.gov.uk
Biocides:
Enquiries regarding applications under the Control of Pesticides Regulations (COPR): pa.copr@hse.gov.uk
Enquiries regarding applications under the EU Biocides Products Regulations (EU BPR) soon to be GB BPR: pa.biocides@hse.gov.uk
Other Biocides Enquiries: biocidesenquiries@hse.gov.uk
Prior Informed Consent (PIC): ukdna@hse.gov.uk
HSE's Chemical Regulation Division
The Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) is responsible for the regulation of biocides, pesticides, detergents, chemicals covered by REACH, and for compliance with the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation:
EU Exit - Changes to Chemical Regimes BPR / PPP - Webinar
This webinar which was hosted by HSENI, HSE and DEFRA on changes to chemical regimes can now be viewed on the Invest NI website at:
The HSE podcast series
There is also a podcast series aimed at businesses working with chemicals. It details information you need to know before and after the transition period.
The following 6 epsiodes are now available on the podbeam.com website, you can access each episode by clicking on the links below:
- After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 1 - Plant Protection Products (www.podbean.com)
- After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 2 - BPR (www.podbean.com)
- After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 3 - CLP, REACH and PIC (www.hsepodcast.podbean.com)
- After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 4 - PPP, BPR and industry voices (www.hsepodcast.podbean.com)
- After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode - 5 - CLP, REACH, PIC and Industry voices (www.hsepodcast.podbean.com)
- After UK tranisition: Working with chemicals - Episode 6 - questions and answers session (www.hsepodcast.podbean.com)
Regulating chemicals after the UK transition period - HSE YouTube videos
HSE and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have also hosted online events covering actions businesses need to take when the UK Transition ends and how the new GB regulatory regime for chemicals may impact their work.
To view these videos please visit HSE's YouTube channel at:
Supplying chemicals to the GB market
If you are:
- a Great Britain-based manufacturer, importer, downstream user or distributor (known as a Great Britain-based supplier) supplying chemicals to the GB market
- a Northern Ireland-based manufacturer, downstream user or distributor (known as a Northern Ireland-based supplier) directly supplying chemicals to the GB market.
You have a legal duty to understand your obligations and duties under the GB CLP Regulation.
Further information is available at the following link:
Notified products for Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Part 6 of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 sets out the requirements for e-cigarettes and refill containers. Click on link below for more information:
Keep up to date
If you want to keep up to date with news in relation to chemicals in the UK or any other subjects, please register on the HSE (GB) website at the following link:
During registration you can select which topics are relevant to you, such as REACH, Chemicals, Biocides, PIC and many others.
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Access to information
How to request information from the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland including Freedom of Information (FOI) and the use of our Publication Scheme.