On 10th March 2025, the UK Government released a new Statutory Instrument (SI) amending the fees and charges for UK REACH, significantly altering registration and authorisation costs for businesses in Great Britain (GB).
Initially, when UK REACH was implemented on 1 January 2021, EU Regulation EC No 340/2008 was retained and amended, with fees converted from euros to pounds. However, following a stakeholder engagement note from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last year, it was recognised that the existing fee structure might not align with the UK Government’s Managing Public Money (MPM) guidance.
Consequently, Defra, the policy lead for UK REACH, proposed new fees and charges. The recently published SI now implements these adjustments, ensuring fees are appropriate for GB and reflect the operational costs incurred by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Agency for UK REACH, in processing submissions.
The full scope of the changes are detailed below and the new fees and charges will apply from the 1 April 2025.
Changes to Registration Fees
Registration fees will no longer be based on the tonnage band of the registration (1 – 10, 10 – 100, 100 – 1,000 and > 1,000) and the type of registration (full vs intermediate, and individual vs joint). Instead, the tiered structure is being replaced with a flat fee for all registrations regardless of the tonnage band or registrations type, while retaining the appropriate discounts for SMEs.
- For standard companies the registration fee will be £2,222.
- This is a substantial increase of approximately 95 % for 1 – 10 tonne registrations, and intermediate registrations, which currently cost £1,158 and £1,138 for individual and joint submissions respectively.
- Conversely, this change will result in significant reductions for 10 – 100, 100 – 1,000 and > 1,000 tonne registrations, which are currently £4,080, £10,913 and £29,419 respectively for individual submissions and £3,061, £8,185 and £22,064 respectively for joint submissions.
- For medium, small and micro companies the registration fee will be £740, £399 and £57 respectively.
- These costs represent the current fee for a joint, 1 – 10 tonne registration or joint, intermediate registration for these sized companies. Consequently, the registration for all the other tonnage bands are significantly decreasing.
Changes to Tonnage Upgrade Fees
The fees for tonnage upgrades are being amended in line with the new flat fee structure. As a result, the new fees are:
- £2,222 for standard companies
- £1,249 for medium companies
- £672 for small companies
- £96 for micro companies
Similarly to the initial registration fees, these fees are a significant reduction for all submission types, except for 1 – 10 registrations. In this case, the tonnage upgrade fee for standard companies has substantially increased, and for all other company types it has stayed the same.
Changes to Fees for Legal Entity Changes
The fee for a change in the identity of a registrant involving a change in a legal personality is being significantly reduced from £1,424 to £290. But the fees for all other changes are remaining the same because they were not in the scope of the new SI.
Changes to PPORD Notification Fees
The fee for the initial submission of a Product and Process Orientated Research and Development (PPORD) Notification by a standard company is being increased to £751 from £475, but the fees for an extension are decreasing to £751 from £949. Consequently, the fee for both PPORD submission types will be the same.
There are no changes to the current PPORD Notification fees for SMEs.
Changes to Authorisation Fees
The UK REACH authorisation fees are increasing for all company sizes by approximately 22 %. This applies to both the initial application and the review of the authorisation.
- For standard companies the base authorisation fee will be £57,689, and the additional substance fee and additional use fee will be £11,538 and £51,920 respectively.
- For medium companies the base authorisation fee will be £43,267 and the additional substance fee and additional use fee will be £8,653 and £38,940 respectively.
- For small companies the base authorisation fee will be £25,960 and the additional substance fee and additional use fee will be £5,192 and £23,364 respectively.
- For micro companies the base authorisation fee will be £5,769, and the additional substance fee and additional use fee will be £1,154 and £5,192 respectively.
Impact on Businesses
Overall, the new fees provide substantial savings to GB based businesses with upcoming registration duties, particularly those manufacturing or importing substances in large quantities. However, for companies required to register in the 1 – 10 tonnage band, they will need to adjust their budgets to account for the increase in registration fees from the 1st April 2025. Companies planning for authorisation, and standard companies submitting PPORD Notifications will also need to plan for the increase in fees.
If you have any questions about the new UK REACH fees and charges, and how these impact your business, please contact us at info@h2compliance.com
The new SI can be found here
Published March 12, 2025
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