After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode 1 - PPP

Plant Protection Products (PPP) - Rachel Brown - PPP lead in CRD (Future Readiness) Transition Programme at HSE and Duncan Williams - Lead for Pesticides Post 2020 Transition Project at DEFRA. We discuss what the UKIM bill means for PPP products/applications, the implications for businesses involved in the manufacture, distribution and supply of pesticides and the data businesses will need to supply to HSE.

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Visit our website for further information and detailed guidance on the chemical regimes. 

*The information in this podcast was correct at time of publication.

Podcast transcript





Good day and a warm welcome to the HSE podcast brought to you by the Health & Safety Executive to guide you through the changes in chemical regulations which are happening as a result of the UK leaving the EU.  In this episode we’ll be hearing from our experts about how plant protection products, otherwise known as PPP Regulations, will be changing from the 1st January 2021 once the transition period is over.  From that date a new independent pesticides regulatory regime will operate and Great Britain will take responsibility for placing PPP’s on the market in this country.



My name is Mick Ord and before I introduce you to our guests, I’d like to point you in the direction of the HSE website where the information we refer to today can be found.  The place to go is www.hse.gov.uk/brexit.  And what I’d also urge you to do is to subscribe to our free bulletin service to stay up to date with all the latest news and guidance on pesticides so you have all the relevant information at your fingertips and you can do this via the website.



Rachel Brown is the HSE’s Transition Programme Manager for Pesticides and Duncan Williams is Team Leader for Pesticides at Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.



Mick:

Duncan I’ll start with you if I may.  What are the main changes that will apply to plant protection products from January 2021 in terms of PPP regulations?



Duncan:

Ok, so at the end of this year the transition period for leaving the EU will end so that means from the 1st January next year we’ll be operating a new independent pesticides regulatory regime in Great Britain by which I mean England, Scotland and Wales.  It’s slightly different in Northern Ireland, so we’ll come onto them shortly.  So in Great Britain the EU Legislation is essentially carried over into national law.  So, all the regulatory requirements of the current EU regime, all the technical standards, are carried over unchanged into our national regime.  It will look and feel very similar to the current EU regulations, except we’ll be taking our own decisions rather than being covered by EU decisions.



That means there’ll be some degree of divergence from EU decisions over time for example maybe different decisions at different times or sometimes different decisions and of course any EU decisions which come into force after the end of this year, won’t apply in Great Britain.  If they come into force before the end of this year, they will and they will be carried forward.  So that’s things like active substance decisions, Maximum Residue Level (MRL) setting and so on.



Mick:

What about businesses operating in Northern Ireland – what’s going to happen to them?



Duncan:

Ok, so under the Northern Ireland Protocol, the EU Plant Protection Product Regulations and also the EU Maximum Residue Level Regulations – they’ll continue to apply directly in Northern Ireland so there’s less change.  So in Northern Ireland the position is basically remaining as much as it is now during the transition period.  That means EU active substance approval decisions, MRL decisions, they will all continue to apply directly in Northern Ireland.  They’ll still have responsibility for product authorisations under that EU Framework and that function will continue to be delivered by HSE for Northern Ireland.



Mick:

How similar will the new GB regulations be to those from the old EU process?



Duncan:

Very similar.  The name of the legislation actually remains the same.  We’ll still be referring to EU Regulation 1107/2009 as it applies in Great Britain.  Some changes have been made to the legislation so that the regulations can operate properly in a national context outside the EU.  For example the EU Regulations for various centralised decision making processes and so on built into them which have had to be replaced by national processes but there’s no substantive policy change. All the retained EU law, retained EU law is what we call the legislation we’ll keep in Great Britain afterwards, that’s been put online at legislation.gov.uk  and you can see the changes which have been made to it.  The regulatory requirements remain the same and the body of EU technical guidance which underpins the legislation that’s used to make decisions, all of that is carried over as well and will continue to be used in Great Britain after the 1st of January so there’s no change in the standards of protection, the big difference is that decisions will be taken by national bodies rather than through EU processes and EU institutions.  So that’s HSE, Defra and the Scottish and Welsh Governments working closely together.

HSE remains the national regulator for the whole of the United Kingdom on behalf of the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and also Northern Ireland.   HSE will continue to do the majority of the work and decision making and we’ll all be working very closely together in a shared governance framework.  HSE will continue to accept applications in much the same way they do now.



Mick:

Rachel, how will the application forms be different to those from the old EU process?



Rachel:

So as Duncan says, the name of the legislation actually remains the same, so we are still going to be referring to EU Regulation 1107/2009, as it applies in Great Britain and this means that a lot of our templates and application forms will actually appear to be unchanged.  We will continue to accept applications in the same way as we do now, and will still need a registration report in the same format in support of an application and there’ll only be some really minor changes to the application form such as whether an application is relevant for GB or NI and these will be published on our website in time for use after Day 1.



Mick:

Will existing PPP Product authorisation previously granted by the UK still be valid and if so for how long?



Rachel:

Yes, on Day 1, all the existing Plant Protection Product authorisations previously authorised in the UK, they’ll continue to be valid in both GB and NI. We won’t be issuing any new product notices at all.  The existing notices and their current expiry dates will all remain unchanged.



Mick:

Will GB continue to issue parallel trade permits from 2021?



Rachel:

We will no longer be able to accept applications for parallel permits into Great Britain.  These are an EU measure and we just can’t operate that outside the EU context.

However, we have put in place some transitional measures to allow time for businesses to adjust and can continue to issue parallel trade permits for sale and use in Northern Ireland.



Mick:

How long will current parallel trade permits be valid for?



Rachel:

So for GB, the existing permits which were granted prior to 31st December 2020, they’ll be allowed to continue until 31st December 2022 or they may expire on their existing expiry date if that is an earlier date before December 2022.   The withdrawal action will be published for all those existing parallel import permits and we are hoping that will be done in the first part of 2021.  This will allow time for stocks to be used up or for any new applications made under national regimes if necessary.



Mick:

Back to you again Duncan.  What is the situation with reference to active substance approval – will they continue to be valid until their expiry date?



Duncan:

On Day 1, 1st January 2021, all active substance approvals which are in place will continue to be valid, they’ll be carried forward in Great Britain obviously the EU regime continues to apply in Northern Ireland anyway so no changes there. We’ll have a new statutory register for active substances in Great Britain. This will be clearly published on the HSE’s website and it will show all the active substances which are approved in GB.  It will replace the EU’s list of active substances which are in Commission Implementing Regulations if you are familiar with those and the content is the same at Day 1.   So all of those active substance approvals   are carried forward and with that new national statutory register, basically an active substance has got to be approved and listed on that register for it to be included in any Plant Protected Products for use in GB.



It’s worth noting that we’ve made some transitional provisions so that the old EU regime can link smoothly to the new national one.  One of these is that in Great Britain, the expiry dates of active substances where they were due to expire in the EU within 3 years of the end of the transition period.





Those ones will be granted a 3 year extension under the Great Britain regime and this is because applications f