Latest standards update from the British Compressed Air Society

08 February, 2022

Tim Preece

Northern Ireland has specific guidance and either CE marking or combined CE/UKNI marking will be required to place goods on the Northern Ireland market (as well as for Northern Ireland goods placed on the GB market, depending on the assessment body location)

To allow time to adjust to the new requirements, businesses will still be able to use the CE marking until 1 January 2023 in most cases, but after this date, application of a UKCA marking will become mandatory. The technical requirements (‘essential requirements’) you must meet – and the conformity assessment processes and standards that can be used to demonstrate conformity – are largely the same as they were for the CE marking.

The harmonised standards cited in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) for CE marking have become ‘designated’ standards – the list of standards allows businesses to show compliance with legislation (see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/designated-standards), The office for product safety and standards is responsible for product safety and is owner of the policies. Full information can be found at the following link – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/product-safety-for-businesses-a-toz-of-industry-guidance

Points for consideration

1. To comply with product safety regulation for business bringing product into the UK (‘placing on the market’) will require any organisation to have either an authorised representative or an importer. Importer rights can be accrued – so if a business imports direct from Europe where there is no GB representation, it risk being legally responsible for the importer obligations.

2. From the 1 January 2021, the products should have the details of the UK authorised representative or importer as part of the labelling of the product. Currently this can be on accompanying documentation. The government guidance states - As an importer, you’ll need to make sure that:

a. goods are labelled with your company’s details, including your company’s name and a contact address. Until 31 December 2022 you can provide these details on the accompanying documentation rather than on the good itself if you import certain goods from the EEA (and in some cases Switzerland). After 31 December 2022, your details must be affixed to the product or, in circumstances where the legislation allows, on the packaging or an accompanying document.

See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/placing-manufactured-goodson-the-market-in-great-britain

3. CE marking will only be possible for placing goods onto the market in Great Britain while the regulations are the same – which is currently the situation. A call for evidence has been issued to review these regulations.