Chemicals Question Answer As a business customer, when drafting a supply agreement for the purchase of chemical substances, what specific chemical sector legislation may apply to the transaction which the supplier must comply with? Does the business customer attract any obligations? UK REACH UK REACH applies to the manufacture, placing on the GB market or use of chemical substances on their own, in mixtures or in articles.Where a substance is manufactured or imported into GB in quantities of one tonne or more per year then the substance must be registered on a database managed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), unless an exemption applies. Failure to register means that the substance cannot be placed on the market in GB. For more information, see Practice Note: UK REACH—registration.UK REACH provides for evaluation of registered substances by the HSE. Substances that meet certain hazard criteria may be subject to authorisation: a process in which particular uses of that substance require authorisation in advance. In addition, companies producing, importing or selling articles containing

These new starter guide collections take lawyers through the environmental issues and tasks arising in four transactions—share purchase, asset purchase, commercial property and leases. The guides cover the entire timeline of each transaction including: the preliminary phase, the due diligence phase, the contract phase and the post completion phase. Environmental issues in transactions Buyers, sellers and funders can face environmental liability risks in corporate and banking transactions. For example, in a corporate share purchase transaction, the purchaser will inherit any environmental liabilities of the target company, including polluter liabilities at previous properties. For more information, see subtopics: • Banking and finance and environmental issues • Corporate transactions and environmental issues, and • Restructuring and insolvency transactions Environmental issues may also arise in property transactions, as sellers that

Why do environmental issues need to be considered at the outset of a corporate transaction? It is important that environmental and health & safety (EHS) issues are considered at the heads of terms stage because: • clean up costs for historic contaminated land can be one of the largest financial risks in any transaction • environmental audits can take several weeks (six-eight weeks for an intrusive phase 2 investigation). The seller may wish to add its own environmental audits to the data room to strengthen negotiations over price and indemnities • if an environmental permit needs to be transferred, the process can take two to four months (or longer) • smaller companies are often not in compliance with health & safety legislation. The seller may want to commission an asbestos survey or get a health & safety policy and manual put in place See Practice Notes: • Heads of terms—share and asset purchases • Data rooms—share and asset purchases Are there any environmental liabilities that the seller needs to transfer? Environmental liabilities

Environment analysis: the Environment team at LexisNexis® look back at some of the key environmental law developments in 2024. This includes coverage of chemicals, climate change and climate change litigation, energy performance of buildings, environmental governance, ESG and sustainability, nature, biodiversity and habitat protection, waste and extended producer responsibility, and water.

Environment analysis: the Environment team at LexisNexis® look back at some of the key environmental law developments so far in 2024, including coverage of chemicals, climate change litigation, emissions trading, ESG and sustainability, nature, biodiversity and habitat protection, and waste.

This tracker monitors relevant EU-UK environmental law divergence and will be of interest to environmental lawyers. Key divergences are included, but the tracker does not constitute a definitive list of all divergences. Where applicable, it also includes key points of divergence within the UK (eg between Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (NI) or individual devolved UK nations and the EU). It tracks divergences to EU law at Directive and Regulation level, but not at Decision level. UK consultations on key divergence areas are included. EU proposals for new or revised legislation are included in this tracker at the point at which the legislative texts are provisionally agreed by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, so an indicative timescale for entry into force, and applicability, can be provided. To track progress with all EU environmental initiatives throughout all legislative procedural stages, please see our full set of EU environmental law trackers, as listed below. In this Practice Note, the term ‘divergence’ refers to differences in the legislation, guidance or required standards which arise following

Environmental law is the body of law that seeks to protect the environment. It impacts a local authority (LA) both in terms of the LA’s own compliance but also because LAs have statutory duties around consenting and enforcement, as well as remediation across various environmental law regimes. This Practice Note will assist practitioners working in/with LAs, setting out scenarios where environmental law issues may come up and providing guidance and links to the relevant environmental law content. Waste Question Answer What is the LA’s duty in relation to the collection of waste? Subject to certain exceptions, waste collection authorities (WCAs) in England and Wales have a statutory duty to arrange for the collection of household waste and, if requested, of commercial waste and industrial waste.Local authorities in England and Wales have a duty to collect certain waste types separately. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 sets out six recyclable waste streams to be separately collected: plastic, paper and card, glass, metal, food waste and garden waste. Waste collection authorities are required to collect all six recyclable waste

Devolution Devolution in the UK is not new. It was prevalent in the Victorian era with significant growth in regional autonomy across local government between 1865 and 1875. In the early 20th century, Winston Churchill, against the background of Irish home rule, suggested ‘home rule all round’ including the English regions as well as Scotland, Ireland and Wales. After World War II, the rise of the Scottish National Party prompted a devolution referendum in Scotland in 1979, which had support from 40% of the electorate. The Labour government of 1997 then enacted devolution legislation for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1998. In addition to the legislation discussed, there is interplay between the UK government at Westminster and the devolved administrations of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the Scottish Government at Holyrood and the Senedd in Cardiff. This can be found in non-statutory guidance and particularly the Memorandum of Understanding. This document often addresses matters on which the legislation is silent and is a source of guidance for

This Practice Note provides an introduction to environmental law. It is aimed at trainee solicitors and others who are new to environment as a practice area. The content of this Practice Note is also available in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and speaker notes—see Practice Note: Introduction to environmental law—training materials. What is environmental law? Environmental law is the body of law that seeks to protect or enhance the environment. Environment, as a practice area, is broad and covers areas such as pollution prevention, waste management, producer responsibility, water quality and flooding, control of hazardous substances, brownfield development, wildlife protection and nature conservation, energy efficiency and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Due to the transboundary nature of environmental problems, such as air pollution and the trade of endangered species, regulation is often required at the national, EU and international levels. Development of environmental law History of environmental law Legislative environmental controls have a long history and can be traced back to private law principles to protect private property and shared assets, such as water. The

Clean-up liabilities are legal and financial obligations to remediate pollution or contamination pursuant to: • statute, eg a pollution incident which causes environmental damage • civil disputes, eg damages for common law nuisance or negligence • contract, eg an environmental indemnity Pollution incidents and other activities that trigger clean-up liabilities may also result in prosecution, director and officer liability, and reputational damage. Practitioners should consider clean-up liabilities when: • undertaking environmental due diligence in corporate, property or financial transactions • advising on company reporting and environmental accounting • advising on transferring environmental liabilities, such as contaminated land, from one entity to another • advising on pollution incidents Broad scope of clean-up liabilities Clean-up liabilities are not just limited to remediation liabilities for contaminated land under Environmental Protection Act 1990, ss 78A–78YC (Part IIA) (EPA 1990) (the contaminated land regime). They are much broader, ranging from environmental indemnities to remediation notices for environmental damage. Importantly, many clean-up liability regimes overlap. For example, the environmental damage regime may apply instead of, or in addition to, existing

What is ISO 14001:2026? ISO 14001:2026 is an internationally accepted standard that defines the requirements for establishing, implementing and operating an environmental management system (EMS). It is the fourth edition of ISO 14001, which is part of the ISO 14000 family of standards for managing environmental responsibilities. It aims to provide a structured approach to planning, implementing and managing an EMS. It is not a regulation or legally required standard, but a set of formal documented procedures subject to third party audit and verification. The guidance for use of the standard states that it can be used, either in whole or in part, to systematically improve environmental management. ISO 14001:2026 is a voluntarily standard designed to be adopted by organisations operating in any sector. Registration/certification is not mandatory. An organisation may self-declare its EMS, setting out details of any third party audit and verification that has been undertaken. For certification purposes, however, organisations still holding ISO 14001:2015 certificates should now be planning transition with their certification body within the time frame set by their certification cycle.

What is a legal register? A legal register is the documented output from a process where an organisation aims to demonstrate compliance with applicable legislation. The quality of legal registers varies, in terms of the compliance processes used and the: • rationale • scope (ie types of issues, types of requirements, etc) • input from those with a required level of technical expertise • documentation to demonstrate compliance It can also vary from being a simple list of legislation, through to more detailed spreadsheets with information about: • the scope of the legal obligations imposed • how the obligations apply to the organisation • details of the relevant ‘aspects’ affected, eg cardboard, flooding, treatment plant etc • the relevant regulator • who within the organisation has responsibility for demonstrating compliance • any specific controls that have been put in place • compliance, eg any relevant authorisations and records • details of the revision history Organisations develop legal registers as part of a compliance process. The drivers for adopting this process are generally either: • a