Dale Camsell, the CEA’s Senior Technical Consultant reports in…

With Summer gone and Autumn upon us, we enter a time of year that has traditionally been a busy period in the regulatory world and this year will be no exception! The CEA’s General Technical Committee (GTC) has plenty to consider over the coming period.

September usually tends to be crammed full of meetings, with the various fora scheduling a host of meetings for immediately after the summer break. The GTC was no exception with our Q3 meeting being held early in the month, during which I had the pleasure to lead the group through a comprehensive update (comprising a 100+ slide presentation) of the latest developments in the regulatory and standardisation world. Members were advised of the status and implications of regulations in development and provided their feedback for onward conveying to external bodies such as the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE), BEIS, etc. The remainder of the year sees many important consultations and advocacy actions taking place, so GTC members will have lots of opportunity to voice their opinion throughout the rest of the year.

The EU Agenda

The EU authorities are currently engaged in a full and active regulatory programme. Many regulations that are of core importance to construction equipment manufacturers are at a critical stage in their development. Top of the list is the revision to the existing Machinery Directive, closely followed by revisions to the Outdoor Noise Directive, and Radio Equipment Directive. New regulations are in development covering artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and a piece of legislation that will harmonise the road circulation of mobile machinery right across the EU Single Market. These are of direct interest to manufacturers and, through CECE, our members can still play a leading advocacy role with the EU regulators.

Marking Requirements – EU and UK relax deadlines

The latter part of August saw two major announcements being made. Firstly, the UK has decided to extend by twelve months the deadline by which it will allow CE marked goods to be placed on the GB market; the original date was 31st December 2021 but this has been pushed back to 31st December 2022. Secondly, in similar fashion, the UK has also extended by 12 months the deadline for accepting engines with EU type-approval in the GB market, with the revised date now being 31st December 2022.

Looking Further Ahead

Now that post-Brexit implementation is well underway, it is time to consider what the UK might do in relation to future regulations for the GB market. As already mentioned, the EU regulatory revision process is pressing ahead at full steam and we can expect some significant changes in the medium term future. The big question is, “What will the UK regulators do?” Will the UK adopt these new EU regulations into UK law without any, or maybe just slight, modification? Or will it do something quite different and create its own unique requirements? CEA members have a vested interest in this matter and it is something that I am keen that the GTC start to consider now, well in advance of the new EU regulations being published. A further matter to consider is how CEA might most successfully perform advocacy towards the UK government. Our position would be undoubtedly strengthened if we worked closely with other associations that have a similar regulatory interest, ensuring that our positions are aligned so that industry speaks with a single voice. During the coming months I will be engaging with these other associations in order to gauge their level of interest in working in unison and decide how we best conduct advocacy. Interesting times lie ahead…