ADCR Updates 23 September 2024
EU update
On Friday 20 September the three first ADCR Authorisation Decisions received a positive vote by the REACH Committee by qualified majority.
The three ADCR dossiers are for three substances; chromium trioxide, sodium dichromate and potassium dichromate, for use in the aerospace and defence industry and its supply chains.
The review periods for all three adopted decision are 12 years from the submission date, and the authorised uses are for chemical conversion coating, passivation of non-aluminium metallic coatings and passivation of stainless steel.
The adopted implementing decisions includes a retroactive measure, aimed at covering the legal gap for uses of potassium dichromate and sodium dichromate for which the uses are authorised as of 22 September 2024.
The final decisions (to our understanding, will be similar to the draft decisions) will be shared in the comitology register as soon as possible, and is expected to still take around four to five weeks.
UK update
On 23 September UK Government published 11 ADCR Authorising Decisions, adopted on 5 September, for dossiers that ADCR submitted under UK REACH
Authorisation decisions: UK REACH - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Other news items:
On 19 January 2026 Defra granted Decisions for the three initial applications (AFA059, AFA061 and AFA063) which we published as news on 3 February. The granted review period for these three applications is 12 years. The Decisions are available on Authorisation decisions: UK REACH - GOV.UK . The Defra Decision come with a series of conditions that users of chromates should be fulfilling and these measures will apply from the 19 August 2026. To support the sharing of these GB obligations the ADCR Service Team prepared Formal Communication Letters that were shared with the Authorisation Holders for disseminating to their downstream users. These ADCR formal Communication letters have now been added to ADCR Guidance and Support , the letters set out the Authorisation conditions and monitoring arrangements as well for existing stock and REACH Article 66 obligations. For the four review report applications AFA058, AFA060, AFA062 and AFA064, Defra is expecting to make their decisions later in March 2026. As these applications are all review reports the use can continue until Defra makes its decision. The ADCR Service Team will update guidance documents on the ADCR website to cover the obligations of the Defra ADCR Authorisation decisions. The guidance is intended for Downstream Users of soluble chromates in GB. ADCR will also hold a webinar later in spring 2026 (April/May) to present the UK decisions and conditions.