FEDERATION STRATEGY
The Chief Executive’s report
There are two topics that have taken up most of our time and effort in the
last 12 months – Brexit and titanium dioxide.
We’ve had several meetings with the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department
for Exiting the European Union (DExEU), the Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) on the potential impacts of Brexit
for BCF members, and we’ve helped facilitate several one to one
meetings for members with government officials.
In February 2017, the BCF coordinated a survey of over 100
chemicals and coatings companies, which was published in April,
and I then presented the results to the government’s Chemical
Stakeholder Forum. In September, I was able to put some of
these points directly to the new Secretary of State for the
Environment, Michael Gove MP, at a round table meeting, and in
January 2018 Ellen Daniels, our Head of Public Affairs, led a cross
industry delegation to meet Defra Minister Therese Coffey.
We continue to make the point that our industry’s supply
chain is deeply connected with Europe, so frictionless and tariff
free trade is essential. This goes hand in hand with regulatory
equivalence – articulated by all associations in the chemical
industry supply chain as staying within ECHA, rather than setting
up an alternative UK body. This will form part of the overall
Brexit negotiations, and we will continue to put our case forward
forcefully.
We were encouraged by the Prime Minister specifically
mentioning seeking associate membership of the European
Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as a UK ambition in the Brexit talks,
in her key Brexit speech in March 2018.
On the matter of TiO 2 , we have been working hard both in
the UK and in Europe to shape the strategic direction of the
industry’s defence of TiO 2 , when it is bound in a paint or ink
matrix. The risk of inhaling TiO 2 dust just isn’t there anymore,
so it’s a huge and misleading situation that we are faced with
labelling paint cans as “suspected of causing cancer by inhalation”.
This statement refers to the dust form of the TiO 2 pigment. A
MORI poll conducted by the Kingfisher retail group asked 2,000
adults what their reaction was to such a label. 76% of consumers
felt they would be at risk of cancer simply by breathing in the
paint fumes. 52% said they’d be less likely to buy paint with such
a label on, which is hardly surprising.
Over the summer of 2017, we collected signatures from over
140 CEOs of paint, coatings, printing ink and wallcoverings
manufacturers, plus important companies in the supply chain
like Kingfisher and Bunnings, and many allied trade associations
BCF ANNUAL HANDBOOK 2018/19
to write to the Secretary
of State for Business,
Greg Clark to explain the
concerns of the industry.
This led to a cross governmental meeting led by BCF, ahead
of the key EU meeting in mid-November. At the meeting, the
UK, along with 12 other countries, expressed concern over the
proposed classification, which was a great outcome and we’ve
continued the efforts in early 2018, with follow up meetings held
with the HSE and CEPE. There is still some way to go to get a
pragmatic solution, but it is moving in the right direction.
In November, we launched our new PaintSafe initiative, in
association with the Painting and Decorating Association (PDA)
and the Scottish Decorator’s Federation (SDF), at the National
Painting and Decorating Show in Coventry. An idea from BCF’s
Vice President, David Beckford, the campaign aims to promote
the safe use of paint and related products and provide best
practice for decorators and other applicators during preparation,
application and drying. I’m also very proud that over 350
donations have now been made by BCF members to local
communities to repaint phone boxes to house defibrillators.
Our new five year road map has been approved by the BCF
board, a plan which builds on the excellent work and growth in
the last five years.
BCF has grown in its proactiveness and drive in the past few
years and so I’d like to thank my team once more for all their
efforts in 2017. Our fantastic awards haul shows our team’s
efforts are recognised as best in class, which is all I can ask
for from my staff. I have a great team, and I’m really looking
forward to moving to our new home in May, but it will be with
a heavy heart to have to let go of some of our most important
and long serving colleagues. However, it will be fantastic for
the Federation to have its own home, and I look forward to
welcoming you personally to the Spectra House in Coventry at
some time in the next 12 months!
Tom Bowtell, BCF’s Chief Executive
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