1. This Regulation aims to ensure the efficient delivery of consistent hazard and risk assessments of chemicals where those assessments are required by Union legal acts, in order to achieve a high level of protection of human health and the environment, enable the development and use of safe and sustainable chemicals, ensure the proper functioning of the single market for chemicals, improve the Union’s citizens’ knowledge about, and trust in, the scientific basis for the decisions taken under Union legal acts on chemicals, and to contribute to the replacement and reduction of animal testing wherever possible.