ADCR Consortium

In July 2026, ADCR published two guidance document and a flow chart for the recent UK/GB Tranche 2 decisions. The Monitoring Guidance for ADCR Downstream User sites in the EEA and GB for conducting monitoring of worker exposure and environmental emissions . This guidance, from July 2026, has been prepared by ADCR for its supply chains with sites in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Great Britain (GB). ADCR has also prepared a Guidance on ADCR Authorisation Decisions for Downstream Users of chromates* in primer products in GB . The purpose of this guidance document, from July 2026, is to provide information on the ADCR Authorisations for chromates used in primer products in GB and to support Downstream Users (DUs) in ensuring compliance with the required conditions of the ADCR UK REACH Authorisations. This Guidance is supported by a Guidance flow charts for ensuring compliance with required conditions of the ADCR GB T2 REACH Authorisations (StC and PHD primers) . More the documents are available at the ADCR Guidance and Support page.

In the EU the REACH restriction proposal for hexavalent chromates is ongoing. This could lead to the ADCR Authorisations being superseded in the future by a restriction of the chromates on Annex XVII of REACH. Details of the restriction and the current consultation (consultation on the SEAC draft opinion) hosted by ECHA can be found here: Submitted restrictions under consideration - ECHA including the link to submit comments. If you rely on the continued use of hexavalent chromates at EU sites, it is recommended you review the current restriction proposal, ECHA committee opinions and associated consultation, which set out the uses that would be permitted to continue provided certain limits for both worker exposures and environmental emissions are met. There are several different options proposed for worker and environmental limits and it is not clear which limits, or combination of limits, will be adopted in a final restriction. Some of the proposed limits are lower than is required under current regulations . There are eight options presented, three original (R01-RO3) and five Alternative Options (AO1-AO5). The current consultation ( ECHA Cr(VI) Consultation ) includes specific questions where ECHA are seeking input on the ability of sites to meet the different proposed limits and the associated timescales for when limits could be complied with. The restriction also proposes to apply to a wider list of hexavalent chromates than are currently covered by the Authorisation requirement and associated ADCR dossiers, including Barium Chromate. If your site could not reasonably comply with any of the proposed limits in the restriction, it is recommended you respond to the consultation and provide details on the potential impacts. Whilst ADCR is preparing a response to the restriction proposal, the consortium do not have details on the ability of all downstream sites to meet the different proposed limits. If you will be affected by any of the proposed chromate restriction limits, this is the final consultation opportunity to provide an input. Input should be provided to ECHA during the consultation, which closes on 17 August 2026 ( ECHA Cr(VI) Consultation ) . Summary of the different limit values relevant for uses in scope of ADCR Authorisations, that are under consideration in the restriction:

On 17 June 2026 ECHA launched the public 60-day consultation of the draft SEAC 'Opinion on an Annex XV dossier proposing restrictions on Certain chromium(VI) oxides, oxyacids and salts'. The consultation will close on 17 August. SEAC adopted its draft opinion on 11 June. The final opinion of RAC is also published. All documents, including background documents and an information note are found on the ECHA restriction consultation page . ADCR is currently assessing the draft SEAC opinion, and plan to submit comments by the 17 August deadline.

The ADCR Consortium was constituted in 2019 with over 60 members, with the aim to support the essential use of various chromates in the aerospace and defence sector. In 2022 and 2023 ADCR submitted the first tranche of dossiers (initial applications or review reports) and in 2025 tranche 2 was submitted. The tranches were submitted in both EU and UK. Decisions on the dossiers have been granted by European Commission (in EU) and by Defra (in the UK/GB). In total the ADCR applicants have received 163 REACH Authorisation Numbers, where all decisions provide a 12-year review period (ranging from 2034 to 2038 depending on the application). All decisions from EC and Defra are provided in an ADCR Communication found on the page ADCR Granted Authorisations . The latest version is ‘ Summary of ADCR applications submitted in EU and GB and decisions status ’ (pdf, version 14 May 2026).

On 30 June ECHA will hold a webinar ' Restriction of certain chromium(VI) substances – guidance for respondents to the SEAC draft opinion consultation'. The webinar will provide more details on the purpose and scope of the SEAC 60-day Draft SEAC Opinion consultation, as well as the format of the consultation and the type of information SEAC is looking for. The webinar will only take place if SEAC agrees on its draft opinion as planned on 10 June. Information on the webinar: https://echa.europa.eu/-/restriction-of-certain-chromium-vi-substances-guidance-for-seac-consultation-respondents (See also Events - ECHA ) Date and time of webinar: 30 June 2026 at 11:00 EEST (GMT +3). No registration is required.

On 11 June at 15:00 CEST (14:00 UK time) ADCR will hold a public Q&A webinar related to the recent 12 year authorisations granted by DEFRA for Great Britain. To support the recent UK decisions, ADCR have published a recording explaining the decision, ADCR T2 GB Defra Decisions Recording small found on YouTube. It is advised to watch this before the Q&A webinar. Please register via this link Webinars and also send any questions you may have ahead of the webinar. Questions can also be asked during the webinar itself on 11 June.

Defra publish the final four ADCR decisions

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.

On 19 January 2026, Defra made three decisions on new applications for authorisation submitted by ADCR in July 2024. These three decisions are the first Defra decisions on the UK tranche 2 applications from ADCR. The decisions have been sent to the applicants, and are expected to be published by the UK Government in the near future ( Authorisation decisions: UK REACH - GOV.UK ). Once the public links are available, ADCR will provide additional updates. The final four Defra decisions on submitted ADCR Review Reports in the UK are expected no later than March 2026.

In January 2026 ECHA communicated to ADCR that they will suspend processing of the Review Reports ADCR submitted to ECHA in 2024 (see table of Tranche 2 submissions on ADCR and Chromates Reauthorisation). ADCR Tranche 2 Review Reports covered three substances and four uses. The reason for ECHA’s suspension is directly related to the ongoing restriction process of Cr(VI) substances under REACH. For all Review Reports submitted by ADCR, the use can continue under transitional measures according to REACH Article 61.1 , until the future Cr(VI) restriction enters into force, or until the European Commission makes a different decision.

On 22 May 2025, ADCR held a public Guidance Webinar where the recently published ADCR Guidance documents on authorisation decisions in EEA and GB, the monitoring template and guidance and Exposures Scenarios were presented. The webinar also provided a short overview of the recent (29 April) ECHA Chromates (VI) Restriction proposal. The slides (and shortly the recording) for the webinar are published under Webinars. The guidance documents and templates are found under ADCR Guidance and Support .

ADCR have today published EEA Guidance and GB Guidance as well as a Monitoring Template for surface treatments, including the ADCR instructions for the monitoring template. These ADCR supporting documents are available on the ADCR Guidance and Support Page . ADCR will host a public webinar on Thursday 22 May 2025 where these documents and relevant developments will be presented. Please register to the webinar no later than 21 May.

ADCR has published the recording from the Q&A Webinar held 27 March 2025, the presentation and a short notes on the questions received, with answers provided. Go to Webinar to view the recording and the documents. We have also published the presentation of the Overview Recording, of 6 March, see ADCR Guidance and Suppor t and ADCR Recordings. In the ADCR Guidance and Support page, we have also updated the ADCR Flowchart ADCR applicant changes flow diagram - GB T1 submissions 25032025 with all the UK REACH Authorisation numbers (from Defra Decisions of 24 February). Lastly, in ADCR Guidance and Support we have provided a useful link to UK HSE advice on Local Exhaust Ventilation .

ADCR has today, 26 March 2025, updated its ‘ Summary of ADCR applications submitted in EU and GB and decisions status ’ as well as the ADCR FAQ document . The summary is found in https://www.adcr-consortium.eu/granted-adcr-authorisations and the FAQ in https://www.adcr-consortium.eu/adcr-guidance-and-support

ADCR has developed five Exposure Scenarios (ES) to be placed as annex of the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for Chromium Trioxide (CT), Dichromium Tris(Chromate) (DtC), Potassium Dichromate (PD), Sodium Chromate (SC) and Sodium Dichromate (SD). The five ES are found in ADCR Guidance and Support

ADCR has today published two recordings, Overview of obligations in EC implementing Decisions for ADCR Authorisations and ADCR - How to execute at a site | Ensure compliance with granted ADCR Authorisations on YouTube. The overview recording, provides information on the granted EC ADCR Authorisations, and walks through the implementing decisions in high level detail and t he second recording, presents two guidance flow charts for ensuring compliance with the required conditions of the ADCR EU REACH Authorisations and the guidance flow chart on feasibility studies. The recordings and flow charts are found in ADCR Guidance and Support . To support the recordings and the guidance flow charts, ADCR invite interested stakeholder to a public Q&A Webinar on 27 March, 2025. More information and how to register .

On Monday 27 January 2025, the European Commission’s implementing decisions for 18 ADCR decisions were published in the Official Journal (as summaries) and made available at the European Commission’s REACH Authorisation website . In connection to this the ADCR Consortium have updated the ADCR Communication ‘ Summary of ADCR applications submitted in EU and GB and decisions status ’ (version 11 February 2025) where all available REACH Authorisation numbers are provided as well as the decision date, the expiry date and link to the implementing decisions, Official Journal summary and the Exposure Scenarios found in the Chemical Safety Report (CSR). All interested parties and downstream users are invited to use the provided information and regularly visit the ADCR website for the latest news and updates. We encourage downstream users, if not already done, to sign up to the ADCR Contact Network to receive the latest information ADCR contact network.

In December ADCR published several updates 5 December Chromates EU Post Decision Webinar Slides, recording and note are published. 10 December Flow Chart Diagram for EU We have updated the Guidance Flow Chart for the ADCR Authorisation Applications with all known REACH Authorisation numbers for EU. The current version is v3 of December 2024 19 December Chromates UK Post Decision Webinar Slides and recording are published

Positive vote on the remaining ADCR dossiers in EU At the REACH Committee meeting 21 to 22 October ( Comitology Register (europa.eu) ) the European Commission and Member States voted to grant authorisation to the remaining 18 ADCR dossiers. The draft decisions the committee voted upon are found on the link above. Note that the authorisations will be valid from the date of their decisions, which will be indicated in the Summary of authorisation decisions to be published in the Official Journal of the EU. In parallel, the full final decisions will be made publicly available and accessible from the Authorisation Decisions List . The publication is expected to take between four to six weeks, and the ADCR Service Team will provide information when the summaries and decisions are published. Updated version of ADCR Summary of applications submitted in EU and GB table (v 21 October) Today, 23 October, 2024, we provide the following updates: ADCR Summary of applications submitted in EU and GB table (v October 2024) This table updates the previous September table with Authorisation Numbers (where already available). ADCR Contact Network Survey The Aerospace and Defence Chromates Re-Authorisation (ADCR) consortium intends to facilitate the exchange of relevant information between authorisation holders and downstream users of the aerospace and defence industry and its supply chains for the use of chromates. With this ADCR Contact Network Survey, the ADCR Service Team aims to identify ADCR downstream users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Great Britain (GB) in order to establish a contact network. This will enable the ADCR Service Team to contact downstream users directly to provide assistance with the requirements and conditions of the chromate authorisations (e.g. guidance, webinars, templates). Likewise, the contact network will simplify the communication of downstream users with the ADCR consortium. Close cooperation between downstream users and the ADCR consortium will ensure that your site has all required knowledge to be compliant with the ADCR authorisations. The seamless continued use of chromates in the aerospace and defence industry is in the interest of all members of the supply chain. We therefore ask for your support in achieving this goal by participating in the survey and joining the contact network. Please complete this survey – separately for each site operating in the EEA or in GB. The information provided will be used solely for the purposes of supporting imposed obligations of the Authorisation Decisions in EU and UK (GB).

As decisions are being published from authorities in EU and in UK (GB), the ADCR Consortium are regularly updating relevant documents. Today, 1 October, 2024, we provide the following updates: ADCR Summary of applications submitted in EU and GB table (v September 2024) This table updates the previous table with Authorisation Numbers (where already available). ADCR Business Continuity Check Spread Sheet for EU Spread sheet for EU (version September 2024) We expect EU to make decisions for additional ADCR dossiers at the REACH Committee meeting scheduled for 21 to 22 October. Once decisions are known, the ADCR Consortium will update relevant documents again. The documents made available by ADCR Consortium may be used to help assess business impacts, due to changes in Authorisations. These do not constitute legal guidance and organisations should make their own assessments and consult their own legal experts.

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) .

ADCR has developed a concise document presenting the main aspects of the 21 Dossiers submitted in EU and UK. The Factual Communication summarises the content of the dossiers, and provides information on the Chemical Safety Report, Analysis of Alternatives, research/substitution plans and the Socioeconomic analysis. Key facts are provided in bullet points and the timeline of upcoming authorisation decisions is provided. Authorisations are needed to ensure the continued availability and operation of A&D products in the EEA, since Cr(VI) is still required for manufacture, maintenance, repair and overhaul across the sector. Viable alternatives for every impacted part and process, where Cr(VI) is currently necessary, are not yet available, despite ongoing efforts. ADCR Factual Communication (pdf, 16 July 2024)

The Aerospace and Defence Chromates Reauthorisation (ADCR) Consortium today provided updated information with regard to chromate authorisation provisions in EU and UK (GB). The full information is available on the main page of the ADCR Consortium website ( https://www.adcr-consortium.eu/ ) and includes summary table of authorisations submitted in EU and UK, and supportive flow charts and spreadsheets.

Status in EU On 15 May 2024, ECHA provided draft opinions for authorisation review reports (ARR) and new applications for authorisation (AfA) that were submitted by the Aerospace and Defence Chromates Reauthorisation (ADCR) Consortium in 2022 and 2023. The recommended authorisation review periods for all the 21 draft opinions are for 12 years. ADCR is currently in the process of reviewing the draft opinions and continues to work with ECHA and the European Commission (EC) for adoption of final decisions on all new AfAs and ARRs before expiry of the existing review period on 21 September 2024. Regarding the ADCR Authorisation application status related to continued chromate use, the following 3 scenarios apply: 1. ADCR Authorisation review reports As ADCR submitted the ARRs prior to the latest application date, chromates associated with these ARRs are covered by transitional provisions and may continue to be used under the existing Authorisations originally submitted by ‘Global Chromated Consortium for Aerospace Consortium’ (GCCA) and ‘Chromium VI Compounds for Surface Treatment REACH Authorization Consortium’ (CCST) until a decision is taken by EC on the ARRs. 2. ADCR review reports treated as new applications (associated to CTAC Authorisations) In April 2023, the European Court of Justice annulled the Authorisation obtained by the Chromium Trioxide Authorisation Consortium (CTAC) for the uses of chromium trioxide (Case C-144/21)( also referred to as the Chemservice decision). ADCR originally submitted chromium trioxide review reports associated to some of the CTAC Authorisations, however in light of the annulment, these now have the status as new applications for authorisation. Those uses previously authorised under CTAC (REACH/20/18/0-6, REACH/20/18/7-13, and REACH/20/18/14-20) may continue under AfA 0032-01, 0032-02, and 0032-04 until a new decision is taken by the European Commission on these AfAs. 3. ADCR new Applications for Authorisation Use of chromates under the new AfAs submitted by ADCR cannot begin until decisions are granted by the European Commission. For all uses applied for by ADCR, there are applications falling into scenario 1 or 2 above. As such there are routes for continued chromate supply for ADCR applied-for uses, from relevant applicant(s), under those scenarios. See the table ‘Summary of applications submitted in EU and GB’ below for information on which ADCR applications are new AfA or ARR . Status in Great Britain (GB) (UK REACH) The UK HSE has provided final opinions for all new AfAs and many of the ARRs, where UK HSE also supports 12-year review periods for all opinions. The final opinions for the remaining ARRs are expected by August 2024. It is expected that publication of the authorisation decisions of new AfAs and ARRs will be prior to expiry of the existing review period on 21 September 2024. These applications are summarised in Table 2 in ‘Summary of applications submitted in EU and GB’ below. Uses covered by ARRs are covered by the transitional measures within Article 61(1) of UK REACH and may continue to be used under the grandfathered Authorisations beyond 21 September 2024 until such a time as a decision is published on the submitted ARRs. UK-based uses, notified to UK HSE by 1 March 2021 as already taking place under EU-held Authorisations (per UK REACH article 127h) may continue until the relevant EU Authorisation expiry dates. The decision of the EU Court of Justice in Case C-144/21 annulling the Chromium Trioxide Authorisation Consortia (CTACSub) Authorisation has no direct effect in Great Britain. Support for continuity of ADCR applied-for chromate uses under Authorisation provisions To support awareness, ADCR has developed flow diagrams and excel spreadsheets that may be used to help assess business impacts, due to changes in Authorisations. These do not constitute legal guidance and organisations should make their own assessments and consult their own legal experts. Summary of applications submitted in EU and GB (UK REACH) Flow diagram for EU (download pdf) Spread sheet for EU (download XL) Flow diagram for UK update 17 September 2024 (previous Flow diagram for GB (download pdf) Spread sheet for UK update 17 September 2024 (previous Spread sheet for GB (download XL))