The regulations concern rinse-off personal care products containing microbeads.

“microbead” means any water-insoluble solid plastic particle of less than or equal to 5mm in any dimension.

"plastic" means a synthetic polymeric substance that can be moulded, extruded or physically manipulated into various solid forms and that retains its final manufactured shape during use in its intended applications.

"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.

The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (Wales) Regulations 2018

The 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 (both as defined in Section 6 above). Breach of a prohibition is an offence.

The prohibition on the manufacture of such products and the prohibition on the sale of any such products will come into force on 30 June 2018.

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.

Once the ban is in place it will be a criminal offence for anyone to manufacture, sell or offer to supply any rinse-off cosmetic or personal care products which contain plastic microbeads in Wales. There are also some related offences, for example, it will be an offence to fail to comply with a stop notice or fail to provide certain information within a reasonable period of being requested in writing to do so.

Where an offence has been committed the regulator will be able to impose a variable monetary penalty up to a maximum of £20,000.

The regulations apply to Wales, however, the UK administrations have developed this legislation collaboratively to ensure the definition of the ban is consistent. The difference between Wales and the rest of the UK is in the enforcement regime. England have completed a separate notification for regulations applicable to England (ref: 2017/0353/UK). The Devolved Administrations of Scotland and Northern Ireland have also committed to introducing a ban on microbeads and will submit separate notifications according to their own legislative processes and timescales.