UK’s HSE Weighs Extending Glyphosate Approval Again as December Deadline Nears and Renewal Review Drags On

19 October 2026, United Kingdom: Britain’s Health and Safety Executive is considering extending glyphosate’s approval in Great Britain beyond its current expiry date of December 15, 2026, rather than completing the full renewal decision on schedule, according to a written parliamentary answer from October 5.

Sir Stephen Timms, Minister of State, told Parliament that “HSE is considering extending the approval of glyphosate beyond its current expiry date of 15th December 2026,” according to the answer as reported by Farmers Guide on October 14. Any such extension would carry over the existing terms of approval, meaning the list of glyphosate-containing products currently authorized for use in Great Britain would not change. The government has not said whether an extension will ultimately be granted or how long one would last.

Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, has been operating under an earlier extension in Great Britain since its scheduled renewal could not be completed on the original timeline. HSE’s own active-substance renewal page confirms the approval was extended to December 15, 2026, to allow time to finish assessing an application from the Glyphosate Renewal Group, the industry group that includes Bayer and Syngenta. That assessment is still underway, and the statutory 60-day public consultation on HSE’s draft conclusion, which the minister told Parliament in February was expected to open in summer 2026, had still not launched as of mid-October, according to Farmers Weekly.

Farmers Weekly, reporting on October 9, said a temporary extension now looks increasingly likely rather than a final renewal decision before the December deadline. According to Nick Mole of the Pesticide Action Network, officials are understood to be considering an extension of around one year while a separate UK-EU agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary standards develops. Under that agreement, which the government intends to take effect in mid-2027, Great Britain would align with future EU pesticide decisions rather than running a fully independent approval process. Negotiations on the agreement are ongoing and its terms are not final.

The Glyphosate Renewal Group itself has signaled it would welcome more time rather than a rushed decision, telling Farmers Weekly that “any procedural extension would give HSE the time needed to complete a full and transparent assessment.” If HSE does eventually complete a full renewal rather than another stopgap extension, approval could be granted for up to 15 years under GB pesticide rules.

The situation in Northern Ireland is different. It is excluded from the Great Britain review and instead follows EU rules, under which the European Commission renewed glyphosate’s approval for a further ten years in 2023, keeping it authorized across the EU until 2033, a decision independently confirmed by the National Farmers’ Union and trade press at the time.

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