On March 18, 2026, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) of the UK launched an 8-week public consultation to revise the "UK Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulations" (UK POPs regulations). This revision intends to include 5 new chemical substances in the comprehensive ban and further tighten the limit for PFOS. The public consultation will close on May 13, 2026. According to the currently released consultation documents and supporting drafts, the relevant revisions are scheduled to take effect on December 16, 2026, and will apply to the Greater Britain region, namely England, Wales, and Scotland.

Main revisions:

The main revisions to the UKs "Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Regulations" focus on two aspects: first, it intends to include 5 new chemical substances in the comprehensive ban list; second, it modifies the control requirements for the existing controlled substance perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS).

1. Add 5 new chemical substances to the Annex I of the regulations (prohibiting manufacturing, use, and placing on the market)

The amendment plan intends to incorporate the 5 newly added POPS substances from the recent Stockholm Convention into the UK domestic regulations and set specific "unintentional trace contaminants (UTC)" concentration limits and time-limited specific use exemptions for them.

2. Amend the existing restrictions on the controlled substance perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)

The amendment also updated the controlled PFOS entries, mainly covering the following two aspects:

First, further tighten the UTC limits. The limits for PFOS and its salts are proposed to be reduced from the original 10mg/kg to 0.025mg/kg (0.0000025%, by weight); the limits for PFOS-related compounds are proposed to be adjusted to 1mg/kg (0.0001%, by weight).

Second, remove some outdated expressions in the original entries, including deleting the previous content regarding the reference to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standards as the analytical testing methods.

ITC reminder

Regarding this key revision of the UK POPs regulations, relevant enterprises exporting to the UK should closely monitor the regulatory dynamics, especially the trend of including 5 new chemical substances in the comprehensive ban list and the adjustment of PFOS limits. Enterprises should thoroughly check the usage of controlled substances in the supply chain and, based on the product application, fully assess the impact of the time-limited specific use exemption clauses on their business, to ensure that their products continuously meet the compliance requirements of the UK market.