GBR/28
WTO/TBT
GB United Kingdom
  • 13 - Environment and health protection, Safety
2017-10-30
2017-08-07
Cosmetics and Personal Care products
The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017 (15 page(s), in English)

The draft regulations prohibit the use of microbeads as an ingredient in the manufacture of rinse-off personal care products and the sale of any such products containing microbeads.

[In the draft regulations:

"microbead" means any water-insoluble solid plastic particle of less than or equal to 5mm in any dimension; and

"rinse-off personal care product" means any substance, or mixture of substances, manufactured for the purpose of being applied to any relevant human body part in the course of any personal care treatment, by an application which entails at its completion the prompt and specific removal of the product (or any residue of the product) by washing or rinsing with water, rather than leaving it to wear off or wash off, or be absorbed or shed, in the course of time;

and for this purpose -

(a)  a "personal care treatment" means any process of cleaning, protecting or perfuming a relevant human body part, maintaining or restoring its condition or changing its appearance; and

(b)  a "relevant human body part" is -

(i)  any external part of the human body (any part of the epidermis, hair system, nails or lips);

(ii)  the teeth; or

(iii)  mucous membranes of the oral cavity.]

Breach of a prohibition is an offence.

Enforcement officers have powers of entry to carry out the necessary investigations in order to determine whether an offence has been committed.

A civil sanctions regime is introduced to enable the regulator to exercise a range of civil sanctions. These are variable monetary penalties, compliance notices, stop notices and enforcement undertakings.

The draft regulations apply to England only. The Devolved Administrations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have also committed to introducing a ban on microbeads but will submit separate notifications according to their own legislative processes and timescales.