UK REACH exemptions
Not every substance placed on the GB market needs registering. Some fall outside UK REACH entirely, some are exempt from registration but caught by the rest of the regulation, and some qualify only while strict conditions hold. Getting this analysis right is the cheapest work in any compliance project — and the most commonly skipped.
An exemption is a legal position you must be able to defend
HSE does not issue exemption certificates. If you rely on one, you are asserting it — and you carry the burden of evidencing it during an inspection or a customer audit. Document the basis in writing at the time you make the decision, not two years later when someone asks.
Work through it in four steps
These are not alternatives. Check them in order — the first one that applies stops the analysis.
Below threshold
Under one tonne per legal entity per substance per year, no registration is required at all.
Outside scope
Some materials are excluded from all or most of UK REACH by the regulation itself.
Exempt from registration
In scope, but registration specifically is not required — Annex IV, Annex V, polymers and others.
Reduced requirements
Registration is still owed, but on a lighter data set — chiefly isolated intermediates.
Step 1 — The one tonne threshold
The registration duty bites at one tonne per year, per substance, per legal entity. Three traps sit inside that sentence:
- Per legal entity, not per group. Two subsidiaries importing 0.7 t each do not aggregate — but nor can they share one registration.
- Per substance, not per product. Volumes of the same substance arriving in five different mixtures are added together.
- Calendar year, not rolling. And for substances registered in previous years, the figure used is normally a three-year average.
Below one tonne you still owe safety data sheet, classification and downstream-user duties. The exemption is from registration only.
Step 2 — Materials outside the scope of UK REACH
These are excluded by the regulation itself, in whole or in part.
| Category | Position | The condition that catches people |
|---|---|---|
| Radioactive substances | Wholly outside UK REACH | Only while covered by the relevant radiation protection legislation. |
| Substances under customs supervision | Outside, while supervised | Temporary storage, free zones, re-export and transit only — and no processing may take place. |
| Non-isolated intermediates | Wholly outside UK REACH | The substance must never leave the vessel in which it is formed. If it is removed, even internally, it is isolated — see step 4. |
| Transport of dangerous goods | Carriage itself is outside | Exempts the act of transporting. It does not exempt the substance from registration by whoever imports it. |
| Waste | Not a "substance, mixture or article" for UK REACH | The moment waste is recovered into a usable material, it re-enters scope — see the recovered substances entry below. |
| Defence | Exemptable in the interests of defence | Requires a specific exemption granted by the Secretary of State. It is not automatic. |
Step 3 — Exempt from registration
These substances are inside UK REACH — restriction, authorisation, classification and safety data sheet duties can still apply — but no registration dossier is required.
Annex IV — substances of minimum risk
A closed list of substances for which sufficient information is already known that registration would serve no purpose. It includes water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, glucose, sucrose, ascorbic acid, and a number of vegetable oils and fats.
Annex IV is short and it is exhaustive. A substance is either on the list, identified by its EC and CAS numbers, or it is not. "Similar to something on Annex IV" is not an exemption.
Annex V — exempt categories
Unlike Annex IV, Annex V describes categories, which makes it both more useful and more frequently misapplied. The main entries:
| Category | What it covers | Where it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Substances occurring in nature | Minerals, ores, ore concentrates, natural gas, crude oil, coal, and naturally occurring substances generally | Only if not chemically modified. Purification is usually acceptable; chemical reaction is not. |
| By-products | Substances arising incidentally, not themselves placed on the market | The moment you sell the by-product, the exemption ends. |
| Hydrates | A hydrate of a substance already registered | The anhydrous form must itself be registered by you. |
| Reaction products of incidental use | Substances formed when a product is used as intended — cured coatings, set adhesives, reaction products in the article | Must genuinely be incidental to the use, not a manufacturing step. |
| Basic elemental gases | Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, the noble gases and certain others named in the annex | Named entries only. |
Polymers
Polymers are exempt from registration and from evaluation. This is one of the largest exemptions in UK REACH and the one most often misread as a blanket pass.
The polymer is exempt. The monomers are not. Any monomer or other reactant present in the polymer in bound form at 2% or more by weight, and totalling one tonne or more per year, must be registered by the polymer's manufacturer or importer — even though what you actually buy and sell is the polymer.
PPORD — product and process oriented research and development
A substance used for PPORD can be exempted from registration for five years, on notification to HSE. The period can be extended by a further five years, or ten where the work concerns medicinal products or substances not placed on the market.
This is a deferral with strings: the quantity must be limited to the research purpose, the substance must stay with listed customers, and HSE can impose conditions. It buys development time; it does not solve commercialisation.
Re-imported substances
A substance exported from GB and then brought back does not need re-registering, provided it is the same substance from the same supply chain and the original registration is still valid. You must hold the documentation proving both.
Recovered substances
A substance recovered in GB is exempt from registration if the same substance has already been registered, and the recoverer has access to the safety data sheet or equivalent information for it. This is the bridge between waste law and chemicals law, and it is heavily used in the recycling sector.
The practical difficulty is substance identity: proving that what comes out of your recovery process is genuinely the same substance as the registered one, at a defensible specification.
Substances in articles
An article — an object whose shape or design determines its function more than its chemistry — does not normally require registration of its constituents. Registration is only triggered where a substance is intended to be released under normal conditions of use, and is present above one tonne a year.
Separate notification duties can still apply where an article contains a candidate list substance above 0.1% by weight, along with a duty to communicate that fact down the supply chain.
Medicinal products, food and feed
Substances used in medicinal products, in food, or in feedingstuffs are exempt from registration, evaluation and downstream user provisions for those specific uses. Use the same substance industrially and the exemption does not travel with it.
Step 4 — Reduced requirements: isolated intermediates
Isolated intermediates are not exempt. They are registrable on a substantially reduced data set, provided strict conditions are met.
| Type | Requirement | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| On-site isolated intermediate | Reduced registration | Manufactured and consumed on the same site, under strictly controlled conditions. |
| Transported isolated intermediate | Reduced registration; further data above 1,000 t/y | Strictly controlled conditions throughout, with written confirmation from each recipient site. |
"Strictly controlled conditions" is a defined term with real technical content — rigorous containment, procedural control, trained personnel, and documented emergency arrangements. If the conditions fail, the reduced registration fails with them and a full dossier is owed.
The exemptions people wrongly believe exist
- "It is registered under EU REACH." That has no standing in Great Britain unless brought across through grandfathering or DUIN.
- "My supplier registered it." Only relieves you if you buy inside GB, or your non-GB supplier has appointed an Only Representative. Importing directly makes you the registrant.
- "It is a mixture, not a substance." UK REACH registers substances. A mixture is assessed by its components.
- "We are a small business." There is no SME exemption. Fee reductions exist; obligations do not change.
- "It has been sold here for forty years." Historic use creates no exemption. Phase-in substances were given deadlines, not amnesty.
- "We only import samples." Samples count towards your tonnage unless they qualify under PPORD or scientific research provisions.
Have the analysis done before you spend on data
An exemption assessment costs a fraction of a registration and regularly ends the project. We will tell you plainly if you are exempt, and we will put the reasoning in writing so you can hand it to an auditor or a customer.
This page summarises the exemption structure of UK REACH as retained in GB law. Annex IV and Annex V are legal lists and should be checked in their current published form for any specific substance. It is general information, not advice on your material.