UPDATE: As you may have recently heard, the date of the UK’s Departure from the European Union has been delayed until May 22nd if the UK Parliament agree the Withdrawal Agreement or until April 12th if it doesn’t. We look at how this may affect your CE Marking obligations.
Note: At the time of writing, this extension has not received the parliamentary consent which it requires in order enact either of those two dates into UK law.
We recently updated our members on the UK Government plans to introduce a ‘UKCA’ mark. This mark has been introduced to enable manufacturers to place their products on the UK market in a ‘No Deal’ scenario where they are unable to CE Mark. Where Manufacturers are still able to apply the CE mark, they should do so. The amending legislation has now passed through parliament and will become UK law only if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement. The UK Government has published updated guidance here:
The amending legislation covers two other important functions: to transfer UK Notified Bodies to ‘Approved Body’ status and to mirror the EU Official Journal to give harmonised Standards ‘Designated Standard’ status in the UK. There are also a number of other amendments to enable UK law to mirror legacy EU legislation as closely as possible.
Our advice to manufacturers in the event of a ‘No Deal Brexit’ remains unchanged; unless you fall into one of the two categories below, you should continue to CE Mark your products as before:
– Manufacturers who use a UK Notified Body should contact that body ASAP to understand their ‘Post Brexit’ plans or if, indeed the UKCA mark is more appropriate
– Manufacturers who distribute through an EU supply chain should understand that the economic operator status of that supply chain will change which may require changes to packaging.
Manufacturers of Machinery are also reminded that if they intend to place products on the EU market following a ‘No Deal Brexit’, they should nominate the person who is responsible for compiling the Technical File who must be located within the EU.
The CE Marking Association will continue to follow the Brexit process and consider its effects on CE Marking for UK Manufacturers; we will publish updates as they become available however if you wish to discuss any topics related to CE Marking, then please get in contact.
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