Journey
Set up as a chemical manufacturer
Learning path for new chemical and chemical-products manufacturers. Work out which regimes apply to your products and site, get your substances and products correctly registered, classified and labelled for the GB market, put the major-hazard, environmental and explosives controls in place, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Making chemicals or chemical products means you are taking on the role of a manufacturer in the eyes of UK product-safety, environmental and health-and-safety law. Chemical manufacture is one of the most heavily regulated activities there is. Before your first product reaches a customer, you become responsible for registering and classifying what you make and for getting the right consents and controls in place on your site. You also become responsible for proving the lot is in order. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. This is the map: it tells you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. The rules that apply depend on what you make and how your site operates. Substances, biocides, pesticides and cosmetics each have their own product regimes, and major-hazard sites, permitted installations and explosives carry site-based controls. Working this out first saves you from discovering a missed obligation late, when production is already running and expensive to fix. Use the router guide to map your obligations before you commit to anything.
Which chemical regulations apply to your products and site
Work out which regimes apply to your products and your site. A reference guide that routes you to UK REACH and GB CLP, product authorisation for biocides, pesticides and cosmetics, COMAH and environmental permitting, and explosives licensing.
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Get your substances and products onto the GB market
This is the gateway to selling anything. Whatever you make, you have to register your substances under UK REACH and classify their hazards and label and package them under GB CLP. Where it applies, you also have to authorise the product before it goes on sale. Getting this picture right at the start matters because the product authorisation routes for biocides, pesticides and cosmetics take the longest, so the earlier you start them, the sooner you can sell. Northern Ireland follows the EU rules under the Windsor Framework, so check the NI position separately if you supply there.
Place chemical substances and products on the GB market
Get your substances and products onto the GB market. UK REACH registration, GB CLP classification and labelling, and product authorisation for biocides, plant protection products and cosmetics — what every chemical maker must do before sale.
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Put your site controls in place
A working chemical plant carries duties beyond the products it makes. If your site holds qualifying quantities of dangerous substances you are caught by COMAH. An industrial-scale installation needs an environmental permit. Handling flammable or reactive substances engages DSEAR. And making or storing explosives needs a licence. These are the controls with the longest lead times — the COMAH safety report, the environmental permit and the explosives licence all take time. Treat them as something to arrange at the outset rather than a formality to rush at start-up.
Operate a safe chemical manufacturing site: major-hazard, environmental and explosives controls
Put your site controls in place. Major-accident hazard duties under COMAH, the environmental permit for your installation, DSEAR controls for dangerous substances, and licensing for explosives and their precursors.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once the moving parts are in motion, take a step back and check the whole picture holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation is genuinely met rather than assumed. Use it as your readiness review before your first production run. Come back to it as your range changes — your obligations can shift as you add new substances, products or processes.
Chemical manufacturer: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything with the compliance checklist before your first production run and as your range changes, so you can confirm you are ready to sell and stay compliant as you grow.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every manufacturing business carries a set of general obligations that are not unique to this sector but are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including the COSHH assessments and controls that apply where you handle hazardous substances and the safe-equipment duties for your plant. See the workplace health and safety legal obligations guide.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on. See the employers' liability insurance guide.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO. See the register with the ICO guide.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from, which are especially demanding where flammable solvents and dangerous substances are present. See the fire safety responsibilities guide.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The compliance checklist brings the core workplace duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task. Work out which regulations apply, get your substances and products onto the GB market, put the major-hazard, environmental and explosives controls in place on your site, and verify the lot — all while putting the general business set-up obligations in place around it. Work the four guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position from your first product launch onwards.