EPA halves hazardous-substances queue but misses complex-file SPE targets

The Environmental Protection Authority completed 66 hazardous-substances release assessments in 2025/26, its highest annual total since 2018/19. Applications awaiting assessment fell 36.5% from 96 on 1 July 2025 to 61 on 30 June 2026. The queue has halved from 121 on 1 July 2024, according to the EPA’s Q4 Hazardous Substances Quarterly Report and matching press release.

Environment Minister Nicola Grigg linked the lift to faster farmer and grower access to crop-protection products. The EPA said six consecutive quarters of decisions outpacing lodgements drove the queue to its lowest level since early 2022.

In the year the authority made 66 release decisions, recorded 11 withdrawals and received 42 new lodgements. Rapid-assessment decisions reached 51, the highest since 2015/16. Seven files used the international-regulator pathway, up from five in 2024/25.

Higher-complexity work remains the bottleneck. The EPA decided six Category B and C applications against an SPE target of nine. Lower-complexity (rapid plus Category A) decisions totalled 60 against a target of 70. The residual queue finished at 61 against a target of 60.

Release decisions have risen sharply from a low base: 17 in 2022/23, 37 in 2023/24, 62 in 2024/25 and 66 in 2025/26. The prior three-year average was 38.7. Rapid decisions climbed from 8 to 23 to 49 to 51 over the same years.

Category C files require full quantitative assessment of active ingredient and formulation and can take more than twelve months. Q4 approvals included Syngenta Vibrance (sedaxane, lodged 2021) and BASF Seclira (dinotefuran neonicotinoid, lodged 2021). Seven Category C and eight Category B files were formally received and active at year-end.

EPA General Manager Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Dr Fernando Torres-Vélez said throughput has lifted and remains a priority.

We've lifted the throughput of hazardous substances assessments, and improving our performance in this area remains a key priority.

He said greater use of rapid assessments reflects proportional risk assessment and timely decisions where appropriate.

The increased use of rapid assessments reflects our commitment to ensuring assessments are proportional to the risks posed, while enabling timely decisions where appropriate.

The EPA has committed to at least nine higher-complexity completions and at least 70 lower-complexity decisions in 2026/27.

Containment work is largely on demand. In Q4 nine applications were lodged and nine decided. Agricultural chemical containment averaged nine working days from formal receipt to decision.

The operational lift sits beside unfinished statute reform. The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Amendment Bill, introduced 11 May 2026, implements Cabinet’s acceptance of all 16 recommendations from the Ministry for Regulation’s 2024 agricultural and horticultural products review. Complex applications can wait more than five years under the dual HSNO–ACVM pathway.

Sense Partners scenario work cited by the Ministry for Regulation put benefits from halving approval times at about $272 million over 20 years. Proposed Bill measures include streamlined pathways, clearer international-regulator reliance, temporary use of some overseas-approved substances pending full New Zealand assessment, tiered risk-based applications and stronger compliance tools. The Primary Production Select Committee is due to report back in September 2026.

Rural News reported in early August 2026 that legislative congestion makes pre-election passage of the HSNO Bill unlikely before the November 2026 election. Primary-sector groups still treat the package as high priority.

Federated Farmers arable chair David Birkett called the bills a real win if implemented well, but said law change alone is not enough without EPA delivery and a culture of speed.

These Bills are a real win, no doubt about it. If implemented well, these reforms should help to improve our access to safe and effective new technologies while reducing unnecessary delays and duplication.

It's all well and good to change the laws, but we need the EPA to actually deliver – and we desperately need a culture change within the EPA.

There's currently a culture of going too slow, and we need a culture of speed.

He flagged pathways of up to seven years and grass-grub chemistry gaps after the chlorpyrifos phase-out and the 2028 diazinon ban. Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard said there was "no good reason our primary sector should be waiting on work that has already been done by other reputable agencies outside of New Zealand". APHANZ and NZKGI have broadly backed efficiency and reduced duplication while stressing practical delivery.

Market signals already reflect delay costs. In June 2025 Bayer Crop Science closed its Hastings research farm and stopped new New Zealand crop-product trials, citing the regulatory and operating environment. HortNZ and APHANZ treated the exit as a warning on multinational commitment.

Greenpeace Aotearoa and PSGRNZ argue the Bill weakens precaution, expands discretionary language and accelerates approvals while EPA risk models are still being modernised. The EPA’s ecotoxicology and toxicology model upgrade with Environmental Resources Management entered formal delivery in May 2026, backed by a separate $250,000 surge-support contract to protect business-as-usual throughput.

Sapere’s November 2023 benchmarking report found New Zealand spent about $3.9 million in 2022/23 on hazardous-substances assessment and reassessment — roughly 7% of Australia’s spend — and recovered only 16% of assessment costs in fees. Median pre-application waits and multi-year Category C clocks had ballooned under chronic under-resourcing.

Primary production remains New Zealand’s largest tradeable sector. Delayed access to newer chemistry affects pest and resistance management, export compliance and the commercial case for local R&D. Operational backlog gains are already visible. Full statutory benefits hinge on select-committee report-back, survival of temporary-use and international-pathway clauses, and whether the Bill clears Parliament this term or slips into the next. Watch SPE 2026/27 complex-file counts and any further multinational trial exits or re-entries.