The UK has revised its Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) regulations, leading to a comprehensive ban on five chemicals, including chlorpyrifos

On March 18, 2026, the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) launched an 8-week public consultation to introduce key amendments to the UK Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulations (UK POPs Regulations)

The public consultation period will close on May 13, 2026. Chemical enterprises, environmental organizations, and research institutions are invited to actively submit feedback.

The core measures of this revision include: adding five highly environmentally hazardous new chemicals to the list of substances prohibited from manufacture, use, and marketing (Annex I of the regulation), and significantly tightening the regulatory threshold for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).

The new regulations are expected to take effect on December 16, 2026, significantly strengthening the chemical compliance framework in England, Wales, and Scotland to address increasingly severe environmental challenges.

According to the revised draft, the following substances are proposed to be added to Annex I with specified UTC limits:

1.Current limit:

In substances or mixtures: 10mg/kg (0.001% weight ratio).

2 ️.Proposed new limit values in the draft:

PFOS and its salts: reduced to 0.025mg/kg (0.0000025% weight ratio).

PFOS related compounds (derivatives): reduced to 1mg/kg (0.0001% weight ratio).

This change will force related manufacturing industries, such as metal electroplating and coatings, to re-examine their impurity control in their supply chains.

At the same time, the UK government is closely monitoring the recent revision of limits for substances such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in recycled plastics by the European Union, in order to assess whether equivalent control measures need to be implemented in the UK to prevent harmful chemicals from re entering public life through "recycling".

As a party to the Stockholm Convention, the UK has an obligation to convert the newly added controlled substances in its annexes into domestic law. Before Brexit, the UK directly applied the EU POPs regulation (EU 2019/1021). After Brexit, the UK will retain and convert it into the 'UK POPs Regulations', with independent legislative authority to make autonomous adjustments to substance limits, exemption clauses, and implementation schedules based on its own environmental monitoring data and economic impact assessments.