Fighting Dirty Sues UK Over 'Fast-Track' Chemical Rules
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- Fighting Dirty is seeking a judicial review of the UK government over regulations it says could fast-track chemical hazard classifications from countries with lower safety standards into British law.
- The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published a consultation last year on changing how hazardous chemicals are classified, labelled, restricted or banned, and proposed fast-tracking classifications from other jurisdictions.
- HSE's consultation response said it would recognize the EU's standards — which it described as the highest globally — when adopting such classifications, but the final regulations laid before parliament earlier this year made no mention of the EU or its standards.
- Law firm Leigh Day partner Ricardo Gama argued the omission of that safeguard means any government, present or future, "could approve chemicals from places that have lower standards than the UK and EU."
- Fighting Dirty cited hexavalent chromium — the carcinogen made infamous by the Erin Brockovich case — as an example of a substance the IARC classifies as a human carcinogen that is far more widely used in the US, China, India and Brazil than in the EU.
- CHEM Trust senior campaigner Chloe Topping urged ministers to "close this door by clarifying in the legal text that they only intend to use the changes to speed up adoption of decisions made by the EU."
- An HSE spokesperson countered that the regulations "actually provide for a mechanism by which Great Britain can prevent non-EU jurisdictions with weaker regulatory practices from qualifying for fast-track evaluation," and Fighting Dirty sent a formal letter before the claim to the HSE on 1 April.
Why it matters: A judicial review would force ministers to defend a specific drafting choice — the dropped EU reference — in court, and the campaigners argue the omission leaves the door open for any future government to adopt standards below the EU's. The HSE insists the opposite is true. Either way, the case will determine which country's chemical safety bar the UK uses as its benchmark for carcinogens and other hazardous substances.
