The purpose of these Regulations is to enable HM Government to:
introduce a ban on the sale of domestic laundry cleaning products (DLCPs) containing phosphates.
These Regulations were made because Regulation (EC) No. 648/2004 requires surfactants
and detergents containing surfactants to pass a three-tier system of aerobic testing to ensure they
meet certain environmental criteria before they can be placed on the market. Products passing the
ultimate biodegradability test can remain on the market. Those used in industrial and institutional
detergents that fail ultimate biodegradability but pass primary biodegradability will be allowed to
remain on the market if the manufacturer is granted derogation by the Commission.
Applications for derogation must be submitted, in the first instance, to Member States who will conduct an evaluation. Regulation (EC) No. 648/2004 provides for Member States to recover costs associated with the evaluation work. Although this EC Regulation is directly applicable, the UK was required to make secondary legislation which would set out our enforcement mechanisms; this was achieved through the Detergents Regulations 2005. The Detergent Regulations 2005 did not, however, enable HSE’s Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD), to recover the full economic cost of evaluating (by risk assessment) applications for derogation.
