Rolling Action Plan – our chemical evaluations list

The plan includes:

• subject of the evaluation – typically the chemical name (or chemical group name)
• the reason for each evaluation
• period within which the evaluation will be conducted
• the focus of the evaluation – chemical identity, and human health or the environment (or both)
• amendments to the list of our initiated evaluations.

Publishing the subject, reason and time period for the evaluation meets the requirements of the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019 for initiating an evaluation. Once we list an evaluation on the RAP, the evaluation has officially begun. The table below shows the time we estimate an evaluation will take, although we may publish it earlier if it's completed sooner.  

We identify and prioritise chemicals that may pose a risk to human health and/or the environment using our Evaluation Selection Analysis (ESA) process. This process also allows us to identify chemicals that are unlikely to require further regulation to manage risks based on their human health and environmental hazards and exposures. This allows us to publish Evaluation Statements for these chemicals and provide the rationale for not carrying out more detailed evaluations.

Our Evaluations Roadmap outlines our strategic approach to protecting human health and the environment. We do this by providing information and recommendations about managing the risks that arise from introducing and using industrial chemicals. By prioritising chemicals on the Inventory, our evaluations are more risk-proportionate, timely and targeted.

We generally update the Rolling Action Plan when we publish our evaluations. We publish a notice on our website when we update it. 

We add details of newly initiated evaluations. Other changes to the RAP may include amendments to the: 

• evaluation subject
• estimated evaluation end date
• reason for the evaluation

We may need to update the Rolling Action Plan at other times. If we do, we’ll publish a notice on our website. These updates can happen for many circumstances, including:

• an adverse event that calls for a chemical evaluation
• a stakeholder request to evaluate a chemical has been prioritised through ESA process
• a post-assessment obligation leads to an evaluation
• we are informed that new information will become available for the chemical that calls for a chemical evaluation

The identified chemicals covered by the subject of the evaluation may change as the evaluation progresses due to new information becoming available.
Completed evaluations stay on the Rolling Action Plan until we publish the next set of evaluations.