UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum (UKCSF)

The UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum (UKCSF) enables discussion between stakeholders, government and regulators in support of effective chemicals and waste management.

The forum works alongside other departments and government bodies, including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Environment Agency.

The UKCSF supports the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals’ goal (and its post-2020 successor) of the

achievement of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.

Goals

The goals of the UKCSF are to:

  1. provide an open and trusting environment to support open dialogue and strong engagement between stakeholders.
  2. participate in the improvement of strategic capabilities and development of policies for the management of chemicals and waste, working towards maximising benefits and minimising adverse impacts.
  3. facilitate dialogue across the supply chain to enable moves towards a more circular economy, including more coherent and consistent legislation.
  4. provide a space to share views on, and experiences of, EU and international developments.

Read our Strategic goals and approach (PDF, 259 KB, 2 pages) paper for full details.

Membership

The forum has 27 members, drawn from industry, environmental, animal protection, conservation and consumer organisations, trade unions and the scientific community. The broad membership of the forum ensures that they are well placed to explore the views of the many sectors of society who work with, or are concerned about, industrial chemicals.

A small sub-group of members of the forum, alongside DBT and HSE form the steering group which meets at least once between meetings to ensure that the CSF is working towards its strategic goals. The chair of the CSF is drawn from the Steering group on a rotating basis.

List of the organisations and their representatives currently on the forum:

  • British Chemicals Association - John Reid
  • British Coatings Federation - Ciara Dempsey
  • British Plastics Federation - Mohamed Elkhalifa
  • British Retail Consortium - Adrian Simpson
  • Chartered Institution of Wastes Management – Tina Benfield
  • Chartered Trading Standards Institute – Christine Heemskerk
  • Chemical Business Association - Elaine McGavin
  • Chemical Industries Association - Roger Pullin
  • Chemicals, Health and Environment Monitoring (CHEM) Trust - Anna Watson
  • Cruelty Free International - Samantha Saunders
  • Environmental Services Association - Gary Bower
  • Fidra - Catherine Gunby
  • Green Alliance - Libby Peake
  • Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence - Helen Sneddon
  • Institute for Sustainability (University of Bath) - Matthew Davidson
  • Knowledge Transfer Network - Peter Clark
  • Make UK - Brigitte Amoruso
  • Marine Conservation Society - Francesca Bevan
  • Non-Ferrous Alliance - Michael Shepherd
  • Royal Society of Chemistry - Camilla Alexander-White
  • Society of Chemical Industry - David Bott
  • Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UK Branch) - Michelle Bloor
  • TechUK - Craig Melson
  • Trades Union Congress - Luke Collins
  • UK Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space industries - Ed Raggett
  • UK Cleaning Products Industry Association - Philip Malpass
  • Wildlife and Countryside Link - Hannah Blitzer

Meetings

Anybody is welcome to attend and participate in meetings, subject to available space. Contact us by email at: chemicals@defra.gov.uk, if you would like to attend the next meeting.

The next meeting will be on February 2024 - date to be confirmed.

Minutes and papers

For minutes of previous meetings and other documents see The National Archives webpages.

Publications

Contact details

chemicals@defra.gov.uk