Online solution to sharing data within REACH

A new online service has been launched that helps the business public work together to meet REACH legislation requirements when registering substances with the European Chemcials Agency (ECHA).

The REACH-VEN service allows companies to pre-register and begin working together as part of a Substance Information Exchange Forum (SIEF) Preparation Consortium, in advance of forming a full SIEF.

Those who sign up with REACH-VEN will be able to quickly find out if the legislation applies to them and, if so, they can begin the process of working together and making contact with other companies intending to register the same substances.

Mark Selby from Denehurst Chemical Safety said: "We know that REACH has important implications for manufacturers, importers and distributors of chemicals accessing the European market, and this solution will help companies in the pre-registration process. The REACH-VEN platform has many benefits in helping companies to begin working collaboratively to share costs leading up to full registration..

Talking about the value that the new service will deliver, Jim Thomas, business development director at VEN, the company that created REACH-VEN, said: "Companies that might find it difficult to make themselves heard in negotiations, particularly relating to the costs of REACH, will find that REACH-VEN offers a cost-effective, secure and transparent solution that does not discriminate in favour of any one company, whether they are large or small.

VEN is supported by the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and is thought to be one of the first organisations to provide a comprehensive solution to complying with the collaborative aspects of REACH. The system takes users from identifying whether or not their company is required to comply with REACH legislation, right through to providing the resources and governance structures for organisations to start working together to share existing data and to identify and capture new data.

"It is vital that companies comply with new legislation, but in the interests of operational efficiency, the process for doing so needs to be as streamlined as possible," said Jim Farmery, head of competitiveness at Yorkshire Forward. "In an increasingly competitive global market place, companies survive on their ability to be both compliant and efficient - the REACH-VEN initiative will allow them to achieve this."

After joining REACH-VEN companies will be able to take part in Substance Information Exchange Forum (SIEF) Preparation Consortia. These will initiate the process of identifying other companies dealing with the same substances.