Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Official Report 682KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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REACH (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Item 3 is consideration of a type 1 consent notification sent by the Scottish Government relating to a proposed United Kingdom statutory instrument, the REACH (Amendment) Regulations 2023. The UK Government is seeking the Scottish Government’s consent to legislate in this area. The committee’s role in relation to type 1 notifications is to decide whether it agrees with the Scottish Government’s proposal to consent to the UK Government making regulations within devolved competence and in the manner that the UK Government has indicated to the Scottish Government. Are there any comments?

As you have noted, this is a type 1 notification, so it relates to a significant change in the regulations. I noted that the regulations in effect delay both the registration and the compliance deadlines for a number of years. For one category of chemicals in particular, they delay compliance checks until 2035. That has raised some quite significant concerns, particularly at the Westminster Environmental Audit Committee during its scrutiny of the regulations. It is important that we hear from our Scottish minister about this, particularly about whether it represents divergence from the existing European Union registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals—REACH—regulation.

I would also like to understand a bit more about what the alternative transitional model is that is evolving for the development of our chemicals regulation in the UK and how that has worked in relation to the common framework for chemicals and pesticides that our ministers are directly involved in with their counterparts across the UK.

There are some questions here for the minister and I think that it would be a great service to the committee if she could appear before us.

I am very conscious of the tight timescale for this, but I also want to emphasise the importance of regulation of chemical substances and the importance of the chemical industry to Scotland. This is an area of key importance. It would be beneficial to hear from the minister, and perhaps, if we have time, to write to the relevant regulatory bodies in Scotland to get their perspective on this. It looks as if this is an essential step, but it would be worth drilling down to the extent that we can during the time that we have.

Thank you. If there are no other comments, on that basis, I propose that we invite Màiri McAllan to come to the meeting next week and give a short bit of evidence to explain the situation. I will also ask the clerks to write on behalf of the committee to the regulatory authorities to ask whether they would like to submit any evidence. That evidence might be difficult to gather in the timescale, but I will give them the deadline of Monday morning next week, so that we have time to consider it before the meeting on Tuesday. That is a logical way to deal with this so that we can fully understand it. If everyone is agreed on that, that is what I will progress to do.

Members indicated agreement.

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Water and Sewerage Services to Dwellings (Collection of Unmetered Charges by Local Authority) (Scotland) Order 2023 (SSI 2023/52)

We have one more item, which is the consideration of a negative instrument. This instrument is laid under the negative procedure, which means that its provisions will come into force unless the Parliament agrees to annul them. No motions to annul have been lodged. Do members have any comments on the instrument?

I have one question. I assume that this is done each year. It would be useful to know whether all the money that is levied is collected and whether there is a difference between the levy amount and what is passed to—I assume—Scottish Water. If the committee is happy, we could just write to the minister to ask for that information, so that we can understand what it is. If there are no other comments, is the committee happy to agree that it does not want to make any specific recommendations in relation to this instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you all. That concludes our public meeting and we will now go into private session.

12:16 Meeting continued in private until 12:37.