COVID-19 Workplace Testing Programme (UK)

The Government has announced it will make rapid home testing available for all businesses with over 10 employees who cannot offer on-site testing.

Businesses must register interest by 12 April to access free tests.

Details

From 6 April, the workplace testing programme will supply home test kits to companies with over 10 workers where it is not possible to set up testing on-site, due to a lack of space or because companies operate across multiple sites.

Businesses are encouraged to register before 12 April in order to access free tests until the end of June, even if they’re not yet open or are not able to start using the tests straight away.

As well as reporting their result directly to the NHS, employees should advise their employer of a positive result and take a confirmatory PCR test. Employers will retain an important role in encouraging their employees to take and report the results of their test.

Employers with fewer than 10 people can alternatively access regular testing through the community testing programme, which is now offered by all local authorities in England. Work is also underway to allow staff of small businesses to order tests online to be sent to their home.

Further details are here.

COVID-19 Employer Testing Duty (UK)

Employers employing more than 50 employees (including agency workers), are required to take reasonable steps to facilitate employees to take COVID-19 tests when they travel across international borders.

DHSC guidance stipulates ‘reasonable steps’ to facilitate the taking of tests might be:

• establishing workplace coronavirus (COVID-19) testing or providing employees with home testing

• supporting access and signposting employees to testing outside of the workplace.

Further (extensive) details are here.

5th List of Occupational Exposure Limits (EU)

Directive 2019/1831 (amending Directive 2000/39/EC) establishes a fifth list of indicative occupational exposure limits (IOELVs) for chemical agents.

For any chemical agent for which an IOELV has been set at European Union level, Member States are required to establish a national occupational exposure limit value. They also are required to take into account the Union limit value determining the nature of the national limit value in accordance with national legislation and practice.

Member States must bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 20th May 2021 at the latest.

The Directive establishes limit values for the following chemical agents:

Aniline

Chloromethane

Trimethylamine

2-Phenylpropane (Cumene)

sec-Butyl acetate

4-aminotoluene

Isobutyl acetateIsobutyl acetate

Isoamyl alcohol

n-Butyl acetate

Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists will be updated shortly.

EU Drinking Water Directive (EU)

The current Drinking Water Directive 98/83/EC last amended in 2015, is replaced by a new Drinking Water Directive (EU) 2020/2184 in force 12th January 2021. Member states have two years to bring in national legislation. We will add this Directive to Cardinal EHS Legislation Registers &a Checklists shortly.

The new EU Drinking Water Directive is here.

Key features of the revised Directive are:

• Reinforced water quality standards which are more stringent than WHO recommendations.

• Tackling emerging pollutants, such as endocrine disruptors and PFA’s, as well as microplastics – for which harmonised analytical methods will be developed in 2021.

• A preventive approach favouring actions to reduce pollution at source by introducing the “risk based approach”. This is based on an in-depth analysis of the whole water cycle, from source to distribution.

• Measures to ensure better access to water, particularly for vulnerable and marginalised groups.

• Measures to promote tap water, including in public spaces and restaurants, to reduce (plastic) bottle consumption.

• Harmonisation of the quality standards for materials and products in contact with water, including a reinforcement of the limit values for lead. This will be regulated at EU level with the support of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

• Measures to reduce water leakages and to increase transparency of the sector.

UK updates to the TCA (Britain)

A little while ago, the Government announced (unilateral) new dates for the grace periods applying to GB goods movement to Northern Ireland under the IRl/NI Protocol. The Brexit Guidance was then updated.

The Government has now announced (unilateral) new dates for the grace periods applying to EU imports into Britain under the TCA (the UK-EU FTA). The Brexit Guidance will be updated.

We are announcing today a clear revised timetable for the introduction of controls, as follows:

• Pre-notification requirements for Products of Animal Origin (POAO), certain animal by-products (ABP), and High Risk Food Not Of Animal Origin (HRFNAO) will not be required until 1 October 2021. Export Health Certificate requirements for POAO and certain ABP will come into force on the same date.

• Customs import declarations will still be required, but the option to use the deferred declaration scheme, including submitting supplementary declarations up to six months after the goods have been imported, has been extended to 1 January 2022.

• Safety and Security Declarations for imports will not be required until 1 January 2022.

• Physical SPS checks for POAO, certain ABP, and HRFNAO will not be required until 1 January 2022. At that point they will take place at Border Control Posts.

• Physical SPS checks on high risk plants will take place at Border Control Posts, rather than at the place of destination as now, from 1 January 2022.

• Pre-notification requirements and documentary checks, including phytosanitary certificates will be required for low risk plants and plant products, and will be introduced from 1 January 2022.

• From March 2022, checks at Border Control Posts will take place on live animals and low risk plants and plant products.

Traders moving controlled goods into Great Britain will continue to be ineligible for the deferred customs declaration approach. They will therefore be required to complete a full customs declaration when the goods enter Great Britain.

Controls and checks on Sanitary and Phytosanitary goods are of course a devolved matter and we continue to work closely with the Devolved Administrations on their implementation, in particular with the Welsh Government on their timetable for completing supporting Border Control Post infrastructure in Wales.

The written statement is here.

GB goods movement to the EU is unaffected, i.e. the TCA applies in full.

Changes to Energy Labels and Ecodesign (UK)

UK guidance changed to confirm that (effective 1st March) EU type re-scaled energy labels would apply throughout the UK, not only in Northern Ireland (via the IRL/NI Protocol). This was in yesterday’s monthly email alert.

The law has still to catch up, but today the BBC confirms (1 March) EU repairability and spare parts obligations will be applied in Britain. They anyway applied in Northern Ireland (Protocol).

The specific product EU Law in this area is in the form of EU Regulations directly applicable in member states (and Northern Ireland via the Protocol).

The BBC link is here.

A consultation was held (closing date November 2020) – here.

Energy labels apply to a list of mainly white household goods, but also computer screens. Ecodesign stipulations apply to a wider list of electric and electronic products.

Changes to Energy Labels and Ecodesign (EU)

1 March 2021 was the date for repeal and replacement of some of the pre-existing EU Regulations on both Energy Labels and Ecodesign.

15 product groups require an energy label, and 31 product groups are subject to ecodesign requirements – here.

Industry sectors may also sign voluntary agreements to reduce the energy consumption of their products. The European Commission formally recognises such agreements and monitors their implementation. 

The new Energy labels set out a different energy efficiency scale.

The new Ecodesign stipulations include requirements for repairability and availability of spare parts.

UK updates to Northern Ireland Protocol (Northern Ireland)

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced (unilateral) via written ministerial statement today the following –

For supermarkets and their suppliers, as part of the operational plan the UK committed to at the UK-EU Joint Committee on 24 February, the current Scheme for Temporary Agri-food Movements to Northern Ireland (STAMNI) will continue until 1 October. Certification requirements will then be introduced in phases alongside the roll out of the Digital Assistance Scheme.

In addition, further guidance will be provided later this week on parcel movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland to provide necessary additional time for traders beyond 1 April. Guidance will also be set out to help address practical problems on soil attached to the movement of plants, seeds, bulbs, vegetables and agricultural machinery. And the Government will write to the Northern Ireland Executive to confirm that flexibilities within the Official Controls Regulation 2017/625 are such that no charging regime is required for agri-food goods.

The ministerial statement is here.

Plastic Packaging Tax 2021 (UK)

A new tax will apply to plastic packaging manufactured in, or imported into the UK, that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. Plastic packaging is packaging that is predominantly plastic by weight.

It will not apply to any plastic packaging which contains at least 30% recycled plastic, or any packaging which is not predominantly plastic by weight.

Imported plastic packaging will be liable to the tax, whether the packaging is unfilled or filled.

Manufacturers and importers of less than 10 tonnes of plastic packaging per year will be exempt.

The tax will take effect on 1 April 2022.

Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2021 to establish the Plastic Packaging Tax.

The key features of the tax, will include:

• £200 per tonne tax rate for packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic

• a registration threshold of 10 tonnes of plastic packaging manufactured in or imported into the UK per annum

• the scope of the tax by definition of the type of taxable product and recycled content

• the exemption for manufacturers and importers of small quantities of plastic packaging

• who will be liable to pay the tax and need to register with HMRC

• how the tax will be collected, recovered and enforced

• how the tax will be relieved on exports

The relevant extracts of the Finance Bill 2021 when enacted, will be added to EHS Legislation Registers and Checklists.

The policy paper is here.