Unusual regulatory heatkey summer developments unveiled

Summer is typically a quiet time in the regulatory world. However, the legislators were far from taking a break during this year’s summer period. In his latest article, the CEA’s Senior Technical Consultant, Dale Camsell, sheds light on some major developments that took place through the usually quiet summer period.

The CE mark will be indefinitely accepted in GB (by one Government department)

A major announcement was made by the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), previously known as BEIS, on 1st August. DBT announced that, for those regulations that it has responsibility for, it will continue to accept, for an indefinite period, the selling into the GB market of products displaying only the CE mark.

As a reminder, the CE mark is used as a basis for manufacturers to declare that their products comply with EU regulations, whereas the UKCA mark was created by UK regulators as a means for manufacturers to declare compliance with post-Brexit UK regulations. However, in order to ease the transition following the UK’s exit from the EU, the UK authorities had continued to temporarily recognise the CE mark in the GB market, but only for a time-limited period. The deadline for placing CE marked products on the GB market had previously been delayed on two occasions, with the most recent deadline being 31st December 2024, meaning that any product sold into the GB market as of 1st January 2025 would have to bear the UKCA mark and have any necessary approvals performed by UK recognised approved bodies

(which fulfil a similar role to the EU notified bodies).

However, on 1st August, DBT announced the indefinite suspension of this deadline, meaning that it will continue, for the foreseeable future, to accept products being sold in GB on the basis of a CE mark alone. Manufacturers do not therefore need to consider switching to UKCA compliance any time soon.

This might come as good news to those manufacturers that had not yet set about their UKCA compliance programmes since they can delay, for now at least, the associated cost, burden, and effort of undertaking this task. However, manufacturers that had already invested their time, resource, and energy into following Government advice and have already switched to UKCA ahead of the deadline are feeling less than impressed by this announcement, since it seems that their investment need not have been made just yet, if at all.

One major challenge remains, which needs to be swiftly resolved. It should be noted that DBT only has authority to delay UKCA for the regulations within its jurisdiction. These cover some of the main pieces of legislation that construction equipment must be compliant with, e.g. machine safety, outdoor noise, electromagnetic compatibility, radio equipment, and others. However, and very importantly, there is at least one other regulation that construction equipment must comply with, and the problem is that that regulation falls outside the remit of DBT. This regulation that covers the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) falls under the responsibility of the Department of Environment, Food and, Rural Affairs (Defra). The issue we face is that Defra has yet to declare whether it will similarly indefinitely extend its acceptance of CE marked products. If it does not, as of 1st January 2025, products will have to be UKCA marked regardless of DBT’s announcement.

Clearly, the uncertainty caused by the uncoordinated positions of different Government departments must be resolved. Hence, on behalf of its members, the CEA is conducting a strong advocacy programme towards Defra to encourage it to announce its position without undue delay. I am in the course of organising a meeting with the Defra officers responsible for RoHS and I look forward to updating CEA members shortly.

The all-important UK Product Safety Review is launched

The day after DBT announced the CE mark extension, it followed up with another major announcement; the opening of the long-awaited Product Safety Review (PSR). DBT is considering whether the current UK regulatory framework is fit for the future UK regulatory regime. The current framework is structured such that it facilitates the functioning of EU derived law but, since the UK is now free to set its own laws, DBT is considering whether the framework needs to change. It aims to ensure that future legislation operates in a way that manufacturers’ obligations are proportionate to the hazards presented by their products, reducing compliance costs for lower-risk products, simplifying the conformity process, and so on.

In order to gain stakeholder views on certain aspects of the prospective new regime, DBT has opened a public consultation. CEA was pleased that DBT approached us directly to raise our awareness of the consultation and to encourage our response since it very much values our expertise in such matters. The consultation, which closes in late October, poses 23 questions and CEA is actively seeking members’ views on the topics raised. We are also collaborating with other associations to ensure our positions are aligned. We await, with interest, what comes of the consultation and what changes might unfold in the future UK regulatory framework.

The UK Industry Forum continues to grow stronger

In the early part of 2022, the CEA conceived the idea of creating a forum of UK trade associations that had an interest in machinery, with the aim that these associations could work jointly on matters of common interest, developing unified positions, and working together on advocacy actions towards the UK Government. The Equipment and Machinery Industry Forum (EMIF) was formed in spring 2022 and has already seen tremendous success, boasting many notable achievements.

At its most recent meeting, held in July and hosted by GAMBICA, the CEA-led forum met with representatives of the Department for Business and Trade, the Department for Transport, and the Health and Safety Executive. The main topics for discussion included the new developments regarding the EU Machinery Regulation and the revision of the EU Outdoor Noise Directive, with the main aim being to familiarise the UK Government representatives with the new EU requirements and, importantly, to gain an understanding of what the UK’s position might be with regards to adopting these EU regulations into UK law. The main message from the association to the Government representatives was for the UK to maintain alignment with the technical requirements of EU legislation and thereby avoid regulatory divergence. We are currently in the early stages of this advocacy; I will keep members informed of progress.

EU Machinery Regulation is published

Another important development that took place over the summer was the EU’s publication of the new Machinery Regulation. The new regulation was due to be published in spring 2022, but the publication was delayed for various reasons and it was finally made available in August. Through the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE), CEA members influenced the development of this new EU regulation and brought about positive changes to the original proposal. This is a pivotal focus of mine, and I will keep members closely informed of any developments.

Harmonised European Standards are published for Earthmoving Equipment

Finally, there is the subject of harmonised European standards. In summer 2022, the European Commission published several standards for earth-moving machinery. The series was published in early 2022, but only now have they been granted harmonised status. This is important because, now that they have been harmonised, they confer a presumption of conformity with the relevant essential health and safety requirements of the legislation, meaning that, when manufacturers demonstrate compliance with the standards, their products are automatically deemed to be compliant with the associated legislation.