European Chemicals Agency tackles REACH registration fiasco

The European Chemicals Agency (ECA) has moved to alleviate fears that problems with its IT systems could leave companies unable to pre-register the chemicals they use ahead of an EU-wide deadline of 1 December, effectively resulting in them being unable to legally import or manufacture certain chemicals.

Under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directive all firms manufacturing or importing over a tonne of chemical substances are required to register with the ECA as part of a Europe-wide audit designed to provide the groundwork for the future phasing out of hazardous substances.

The directive is expected to cover a huge number of companies and include industries ranging from chemicals manufacturers to hairdressers. Those that fail to pre-register the chemicals they use will have to suspend manufacture or import of the chemicals until they have completed the more lengthy full registration process, potentially leading to significant disruption to their business.

However, many of the firms attempting to pre-register their chemicals on the ECA's REACH-IT website in recent weeks have found that the site has crashed or been running so slowly they have only been able to pre-register a limited number of chemicals each day.

Peter Snaith, a partner at law firm Dickinson Dees LLP which has been working with clients on how to comply with REACH, said many firms were now concerned that they would not be able to pre-register all the chemicals they use ahead of the deadline.

"One client thought they had left themselves plenty of time to comply, but found that when they came to register the site was crashing on them all the time," he said, adding that anecdotal evidence suggested the problem was widespread.

"It is surprising, because initially people were advised to wait and see how the system coped and not pre-register too early," he said. "But now lots of people are registering and it is putting the system under pressure."

The ECA moved to tackle the problem, announcing last week that it had " improved the robustness of the system", before confirming on Monday that it had doubled the capacity of the site.

It then went further yesterday, announcing that it had put in contingency plans for a back-up submission procedure for pre-registration that will be enacted if the REACH-IT site cannot cope with the expected spike in users in the last few days before the December 1 deadline.

The agency said that while it did not have the authority to extend the deadline for pre-registration, it would provide a different a web form for firms to provide pre-registration information if the REACH-IT "was not able to absorb the influx of last-minute pre-registrations and was not accessible during the final phase of pre-registration".

However, it warned that firms using this method would not immediately receive a pre-registration number, because the information would have to be located on to the original system at a later date. As a result it urged firms to pre-register as soon as possible, and advised them to try and do so at off peak hours to help limit pressure on the agency's IT systems.

Peter Duncan, a solicitor at Dickinson Dees, said that despite the problems with the registration system firms should seek to pre-register as soon as possible or risk considerable disruption to their business. "It takes more than a week for the ECA to let you know if your pre-registration has been successful, " he said. "So if you do leave it until tthe last moment and are then told there is a problem with the application it could be too late to deal with."

Firms attempting to pre-register chemicals should also keep records of the process, according to Snaith, in case problems with the IT system mean that they are unable to complete the process in time. "It is only speculation at this stage, but if you keep records that allow you prove you have done all you can to pre-register, then you will be in a better position to apply for leniency [if the deadline is missed]," he said.