Revised ECHA Consultation Procedure for Guidance published

Revised ECHA Consultation Procedure for Guidance published

ECHA/NA/14/01

ECHA has published a second revision of its Consultation Procedure for Guidance, as endorsed by the ECHA Management Board at its December 2013 meeting.

Helsinki, 22 January 2014 – The Consultation Procedure for Guidance describes how ECHA consults relevant partners on the Guidance it generates and publishes to support the implementation of legislation within its remit.The updated consultation procedure document now takes full account of the extension of ECHA's guidance activities to include the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) and the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Regulation as well as the REACH and CLP Regulations which were covered by the previous revision. It further allows to:

• Better distinguish procedures for updates to guidance which is aimed at Member State competent authorities and at ECHA itself from that aimed at industry;
• Improve flexibility when replacing guidance documents with web-based information sources – especially for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);
• Add a formal and transparent procedure for making guidance documents obsolete;
• Increase flexibility to allow faster (and/or more efficient and effective) updates to guidance.

The document was endorsed by the Management Board of ECHA at its meeting on 18 December 2013.