Today, the Environmental Audit Committee published its report on its inquiry into per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as the ‘forever chemicals’.
The inquiry, launched in April 2025, follows years of growing concern about the state of uncontrolled and widespread PFAS pollution in the UK. The findings deliver a damning verdict on the UK’s handling of the PFAS pollution crisis, warning that the government’s approach is too weak and too slow.
PFAS are a group of over 10,000 highly persistent chemicals that take generations to break down in the environment. Exposure to some PFAS has been linked with adverse health impacts, including certain cancers, reduced fertility, and disruption to the immune system.
A previous report from the Environment Agency estimated that there could be as many as 10,000 high-risk PFAS contamination sites across England. The cost of clean-up is also expected to be enormous. Estimates from the Forever Pollution Project find that even in a scenario where emissions stopped immediately, annual costs in the UK would remain at £480m for the next 20 years.
The UK government’s current approach does not go far enough
The Committee says that the UK government’s PFAS plan, released earlier this year, falls short because it focuses on expanding PFAS monitoring instead of preventing pollution in the first place or cleaning up existing contamination. CHEM Trust published a blog making these same critiques in February 2026.
Polluters must be held accountable
The EAC report states that voluntary action by the industry will not deliver the change needed. Instead, the inquiry calls for the polluter pays principle, ensuring companies are held financially responsible for the high costs of clean-up and remediation, deterring further contamination.
We must ban PFAS as a group
The EAC also highlights the importance of taking a precautionary and group-based approach to PFAS regulation, to prevent one banned chemical from simply being replaced by another closely related and equally harmful substance.
Greater alignment with the EU is needed
The report concludes that the UK public faces weaker protections and greater exposure to PFAS than EU citizens, where a universal PFAS restriction is moving ahead. To speed up UK controls and avoid falling behind the EU, the Committee recommends closer alignment with EU REACH, the EU’s main chemicals safety regime.
Dr Shubhi Sharma from CHEM Trust said:
“CHEM Trust welcomes this report as a stark warning that the UK government’s approach to regulating ‘forever chemicals’ is failing. Some PFAS are linked to serious health harms, yet current action falls far short of what is needed. The UK government must move beyond monitoring contamination, start preventing PFAS pollution at source, make polluters pay, and regulate PFAS as a group using a precautionary approach. The UK now needs swift, decisive action, matching the EU’s universal PFAS restriction, to protect people’s health and the environment.”
