Written on: April 1, 2023 by Patrick Heskins
Politics in the United Kingdom (UK) suffered a little bit of turmoil during 2022. We had three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors of the Exchequer and three Secretaries of State at the Dept. for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Dept. for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Not satisfied with months of Ministerial “musical chairs,” the current Prime Minster decided in February to break up BEIS in to three separate departments: one for Business & Trade (DBT), one for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and a third for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).
For aerosol regulation, or at least the primary piece of regulation aerosol dispensers must conform to, we now have a whole new department to deal with and another new Secretary of State.
While all of this has been going on, the business of Government has not stopped. Following our departure from the European Union (EU), all Government departments are being asked to look at the regulations that were copied over into UK law when we left [in 2020], and to see if they are fit for purpose—all 2,400 of them. This is called the Retained EU Law (Revocation & Reform) Bill 2022 (REUL).
The Aerosol Dispenser Regulations are law in the UK. Interestingly, they contain references to other pieces of EU legislation such as Classification, Labeling & Packaging (CLP), which is reviewed under REUL. All such references will need to be updated, assuming a Great Britain (GB) equivalent can be agreed upon. The ministerial department responsible for aerosol regulation, the Office for Product Safety & Standards (OPSS), is also carrying out a much wider Product Safety Review, and the Aerosol Dispenser Regulations will be part of this. SPRAY
