UK REACH New Fees on and from April 1, 2025

By Susana Planas MunGavin BSc., MSc, senior regulatory specialist, Supply Chain team, UL Solutions

On March 10, 2025, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published the REACH Fees and Charges (Amendment of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 340/2008) Regulations 2025, S.I. No. 299.  These Regulations amend the fees payable to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) according to the Commission Regulation (EC) No 340/2008 on the fees and charges payable to the European Chemicals Agency pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) (“EUR 2008/340”) (“the Fees and Charges Regulation”).

New fees apply on April 1, 2025 to both micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large-sized companies established within Great Britain, including England, Wales and Scotland.

Regulations 3 to 8 amend various fees in the Fees and Charges Regulation having had regard to the all items consumer prices index published by the Statistics Board and the costs of the Agency in administering UK REACH.

Regulation 3 amends Annex 1 of UK REACH, as follows:

• Regulation 3 (1) amends the fees for registrations submitted under Article 6, 7 or 11 of UK REACH, as provided for in Annex 1 of UK REACH.
• Regulation 3(2) amends the standard fees for substances of all tonnages to be the same fee of GBP 2,222.

The cost-saving resulting from this amendment is significant for large-sized companies that are required to register substances in the high tonnage bands equal to or above 10 tonnes per year (t/yr), representing a significant registration fee decrease for each band 10-100 t/yr, 100-1000 t/yr, and >1000 t/yr, as fee will be uniformly set to £2,222 from April 1, 2025 onwards, regardless of tonnage bands and whether submissions are made individually or jointly.

On the other hand, it significantly increases the costs for the 1-10 t/yr registration band by 95 per cent, currently registration for this band is set at GBP 1,138 and will become the standard fee of GBP 2,222 from April 1, 2025.

Table 1: Standard Fees

- Regulation 3(3) amends the reduced fees for SMEs based on the size of the enterprise (medium, small or micro) regardless of whether the submission is submitted individually or jointly. The changes reduce the fees for an individual submission for 1-10 tonnes by approximately 25%, down to GBP 740. All the other tonnage ranges decrease by between 63% to 96% approximately, down to GBP 399 and GBP 57.

Table 2: Reduced fees for SMEs

Regulation 4 amends Annex 2 of UK REACH, as follows:

Regulation 4(1) amends the fees for registration submitted under Article 17(2), Article 18(2) and (3) or Article 19 of UK REACH in Annex 2 of UK REACH.

Both Regulation 4(2) and 4(3) amend the standard and reduced fees for SMEs irrespective of individual or joint submissions, standard fees see an increase between 46 per cent and 95 per cent, being the standard fee GBP 2,222.

The reduced fees for SMEs are decreased for individual submissions of approximately 25 per cent as compared to fees prior to April 1, 2025, while fees for joint submissions remain unchanged at GBP 740 (medium enterprise); GBP 399 (small enterprise) and GBP 57 (micro enterprise).

Regulation 5 amends Annex 3 of UK REACH, as follows:

Regulation 5(1) amends the fees for the update of registrations under Article 22 in Annex 3 of UK REACH, setting a standard fee, as per Regulation 5(2), Table 1, of GBP 2,222 irrespective of individual or joint submission. 

Whereas, the reduced fees for SMEs, as per Regulation 5(3),Table 2 are updated and significantly lowered across all tonnage bands setting equal fees for joint or individual submissions.

Regulation 5(4) amends Table 3 (fees for other updates), for the change in identify of the registrant involving a change in legal personality, reducing the current fee of GBP 1,424 to GBP 290.  It should be noted that the current fees set under Table 3 applicable for the access granted to information in the submission will not be modified and remain as current.

Table 4 reduced fees for SMEs (other updates), for the change in identify of the registrant involving a change in legal personality are reduced significantly to:

Regulation 6 amends the fees and charges for a PPORD (“product and process orientated research and development”) notification under Article 9 in Annex 5 of UK REACH. The PPORD standard fee is seeing an increase to GBP 751, compared to the current standard fee of GBP 475.  Whereas the charges for the extension of a PPORD exemption is reduced from GBP 949 to GBP 751 (standard fees).

Regulations 7 and 8 increases the fees for application for an authorisation under Article 62 in Annex 6 of UK REACH and for the review of an authorisation under Article 61 in Annex 7 of UK REACH.  Seeing significant increases for all types of companies, whether large-sized companies or SMEs, as set out in the tables below:

Table 1: Standard Fees

Table 2: Reduced Fees for SMEs

The current fee tables provided under Annexes 1 to 7 are available from the HSE website and will be updated accordingly to reflect the new applicable charges in each case as from April 1, 2025 onwards.

Recommended Action Items

• Large-sized companies should review fees for each tonnage band and prepare budget allowances for the new fee adjustment from April 1, 2025.
• SMEs should review registration fees and note that they should benefit from significant reductions for all tonnage bands from April 1, 2025.

References

The REACH Fees and Charges (Amendment of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 340/2008) Regulations 2025, S.I. No. 299 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/299/pdfs/uksi_20250299_en.pdf

HSE UK Fees and Charges - https://www.hse.gov.uk/reach/fees-and-charges-table.htm

Commission Regulation (EC) No 340/2008 on the fees and charges payable to the European Chemicals Agency pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) (“EUR 2008/340”) - eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32008R0340 

Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency, amending Directive 1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 as well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and Commission Directives 91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC (Text with EEA relevance) as retained under the UK legislation, referred to as UK REACH - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2006/1907/contents