Members may recall that in early 2022 the Home Office undertook a consultation on amendments to the Poisons Act 1972, which controls the sale of certain explosives precursors and poisons – including nitromethane. See:https://bmfa.org/possible-amendments-to-poisons-act-1972-affects-users-of-fuel-containing-nitromethane-please-respond-to-the-consultation

The BMFA attended a meeting with Home Office officials to oppose proposals which would negatively impact those members using high nitro content fuels. We also encouraged members to respond to the consultation in the same way and we’re pleased to report that a good response was received.

The Home Office have just provided us with the following update:

Following the public consultation which ran between December 2021 and March 2022, new legislation was laid in January 2023 to add new requirements to the measures contained in the Poisons Act 1972.

Of particular interest to your members, following the evidence provided in the public consultation the Government decided not to proceed with the measure in the consultation intending to bring in upper concentration levels for currently regulated explosives precursors. This includes a decision not to lower the threshold at which nitromethane is regulated from 30% to 16%. We would like to thank you and your members again for the helpful contributions received in the public consultation.

We would like to express our gratitude to the team at the Home Office for their positive engagement with the BMFA and its members on this matter and for responding so positively.

United we Achieve