Government department lead

HSE leads for the UK. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and a number of other departments share an interest.

Background

Regulation 689/2008/EC is a directly acting European Regulation that puts into law European Member States’ obligations under the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (Rotterdam Convention). The UK became party to the Rotterdam Convention in 1998.

Main Provisions

• The Rotterdam Convention aims to promote shared responsibility and cooperation in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals. It gives importing countries the power to make informed decisions on which chemicals they want to receive, and to exclude those they cannot manage safely.
• Regulation 689/2008/EC also requires information to be exchanged about chemicals banned for use or severely restricted within the European Community and it increases the number of chemicals subject to the Prior Informed Consent Procedure.

Developments

• Regulation 689/2008/EC replaces Regulation 304/2003/EC which was annulled by the European Court of Justice on the grounds that it needed a broader legal base. However, the court allowed the provisions of 304/2003/EC to continue to have effect until the adoption of  Regulation 689/2008/EC which has the appropriate legal bases.
• Regulation 689/2008/EC came into force on 1 August 2008 and the UK enforcement regulations (SI 2008 No. 2108) came into force on 3 September 2008.
• Regulation (EC) No 689/2008 makes some changes to the previous Regulation (EC 304/2003) in light of experience and follows more closely the provisions of the Rotterdam Convention.

Further Information

For further information about PIC please visit the PIC site.

Links

• HSE webpage on this issue
• Rotterdam Convention website