HC Deb 07 April 1981 vol 2 cc257-8W
Mr. Grylls

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list those chemical substances in the proposed regulations announced by the Health and Safety Commission that are not included in the appropriate European Economic Commission directive.

Mr. Waddington

The proposed regulations in the Health and Safety Commission's consultative document "Notification of New Substances" are intended to apply to all substances first supplied after the date on which the regulations will come into force. They will include the following categories of substances in respect of which national provisions are excluded totally from harmonisation under the terms of directive 79/831/EEC adopted by the Council of the European Communities.

  1. 1. medicinal products, narcotics and radioactive substances;
  2. 2. foodstuffs or feeding stuffs.

They will also include the following categories of substances but harmonisation of national notification provisions is not required under the terms of the directive. 1. pesticides and fertilisers, in so far as they are subject to approval procedures which are at least equivalent, or Community notification procedures, or procedures which are not yet harmonised; 2. substances which are already subject to similar testing and notification requirements under existing directives.

A further class of substances included in the proposals is chemical intermediates, for which harmonisation of national provisions is not required under the terms of the directive where these are substances which are not placed on the market.