The government has declined to use the Stormont Brake to block incoming EU chemical labelling and packing regulations, following a request from unionist politicians in Northern Ireland to stop the rules taking effect there.
Over 35 unionist members of the Stormont assembly wrote to the UK government, requesting it blocked incoming EU legislation from taking effect in Northern Ireland.
The EU Chemical Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation amended the pre-existing European regime and came into effect in December 2024.
These new rules require online stores to display hazardous properties clearly on their websites and permits digital and fold-out labels for different products.
No ‘significant impact’
In a letter to Stormont speaker Edwin Poots, Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn rejected the request, saying that none of the substantive or procedural tests had been passed for the government to intervene.
According to Benn, the new regulations would neither have a “significant impact specific to everyday life of communities in Northern Ireland in a way that is liable to persist” or “differ significantly” from the current regime in whole or in part.
Additionally, he said that the government believed that “the overwhelming majority of businesses within the UK internal market also trade with the EU market.
“As such there is a strong ongoing incentive for businesses who supply across the UK internal market to ensure they have made the relevant changes in order to continue to serve those markets (assuaging any potential impacts specific only to Northern Ireland).”
Brake
The Stormont Brake allows politicians in the Northern Irish Assembly to object to EU laws that could otherwise be introduced in the region, as the area is still subject to EU single market rules under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The brake forms part of the Windsor Framework, agreed between former prime minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in February 2023.
Benn said that the UK government would take steps to avoid “new barriers arising” from the regulation, including a consultation on whether a consistent regime should exist for chemicals across the UK to protect the internal market.
Unionist disappointment
DUP leader Gavin Robinson told the BBC that he was disappointed, but said the government has "taken steps today to ensure there is no divergence" in the UK's internal market.
"Fundamentally, that is what is important to us," he added.
Alliance Party deputy leader Eóin Tennyson warned against the Stormont brake being "abused", while Northern Ireland first minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O'Neill, called for pragmatism "instead of grandstanding or trying to be overtly political about it".
