UKCA marking requirements and deadline extensions

CE Marked products were to be phased out of the GB market by the end of 2021, to be superseded by the UKCA mark. The latest deadline extension means that CE marked products can now be sold right through to 31st December 2024. Dale Camsell reports on a series of government roundtables to help evolve a workable, business friendly, future for the UKCA mark.

Now that stakeholders have had the opportunity to understand and gain experience of the implications of UKCA marking requirements, the UK government has held a series of roundtable events, during which it sought to obtain views from a wide range of sectors, including manufacturers. The aim is to help understand how the government can make the UK’s approach to product marking as easy as possible for industry, whilst ensuring the continued protection of machinery users.

The structure and content of these roundtable sessions was quite different from the usual style of such events. Typically, the organiser will have a proposal and uses the roundtables to seek stakeholder views. However, on this occasion, the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), simply asked attendees what thoughts they had on the introduction of the UKCA regime and how they thought future legislation should be structured so that it imposes minimal burdens on stakeholders whilst maximising the post-Brexit opportunities.

Whilst engagement with the DBT was welcomed, attendees stated that they were, on the whole, not experiencing any post-Brexit benefits. Questions included what are the most significant opportunities or issues sectors have faced with the current UKCA marking and testing requirements, what opportunities or issues sectors will likely face with certifying and placing goods on the GB market once UKCA is mandated, what the main objectives of the UK’s regulatory regime should be, and to what extent is divergence between EU and UK product marking rules an opportunity or a concern. With regard to this final question, participants were generally of the opinion that continued alignment between the technical requirements of EU and UK product regulations should be maintained, thus allowing machines of the same build specification to be placed on either the EU or GB market. However, one stakeholder group, approved bodies, are extremely concerned that if UK continues to accept UKCA marking on the basis of conformity assessments performed by EU notified bodies, then they will likely go out of business since this is not a reciprocal arrangement and is consequently placing UK approved bodies in a very uncompetitive position. This is because an EU notified body’s certificate will be accepted across the entire EU market as well as the GB market, whereas a conformity assessment performed by a UK approved body will only be accepted in UK. Hence it does not make sense for customers to use UK approved bodies due to the limited market it serves. UK approved bodies will only therefore endorse continued EU/UK alignment provided that a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) is established between the two regions.

As mentioned, DBT were not trying to convey a message or position; they simply wanted to hear about what stakeholders were looking for in future UKCA marking regulations. To this end they posed further questions, including what further support would industry like to see from government, and is the current guidance sufficient and, if not, how could it be improved. DBT aims to provide feedback on the findings and conclusions of the roundtables later in the year, probably during Q3.

It was good that DBT took the time and effort to run several days of these Q&A sessions across the country. As previously reported, the CEA already has, through the Equipment and Machinery Industry Forum, a well-established liaison with the DBT staff that are responsible for implementing specific UK regulations such as machine safety and outdoor noise. We don’t, however, have the same degree of engagement with the UKCA policy team. I therefore took the opportunity to engage with them suggesting they visit Plantworx and offering a guided tour of exhibits. This will provide the UKCA policy team with an understanding of the equipment and compliance challenges that our sector faces and should be a mutually beneficial exercise. I'm pleased to report that they are keen to attend and arrangements are in hand. Now all we need is some lovely sunshine…