As we all know, the United Kingdom has left the European Union and from January 2021, the transition period for Brexit will have come to an end.
With that in mind, many of our clients have asked us, what changes will Brexit impose on the CE marking of products?
Currently, a transition agreement is in place to allow the use of both the established CE and new UKCA marks in the UK market from 1st January 2021 until 31st December 2021.
From January 2022, the Construction Products Regulation advises that the only acceptable marking for construction products placed on the UK market will be the new UKCA mark. The UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) marking is a new product marking that will be used for goods being placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). It covers most goods which previously required CE marking and can be used from 1 January 2021. Furthermore, when a product lawfully bears the UKCA mark, the new UK Declaration of Conformity is the document that will replace an EU Declaration of Performance.
Additionally, it has been currently stated that all existing harmonised European standards (e.g. BS EN 1090) will become UK ‘designated standards’. This means that immediately after the end of the transition period, harmonised European standards and UK designated standards will be identical.
So, will the marking of Wincro products change?
In a word, yes… but not yet.
During 2021, we will be working to attain the UKCA mark (with accompanied UK Declaration of Conformity) for the applicable products in our range as information becomes available and new assessments take place. However, until all standards and agreements are finalised, we will continue to legally mark our products with the well-recognised CE mark until this becomes redundant in January 2022. Any new assessments from 2021 should bear the UKCA mark for placing products on the UK market, but existing products can still use the CE mark. This means that there may be a period in which our product ranges are affixed with either the CE or new UKCA mark.
Could you provide further information regarding product marking?
For further information, please contact us and additionally we would recommend visiting the government (gov.uk) and British Standards Institution (bsigroup.com) websites. Links to the specific information relating to the transition can be found below:
https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/media-centre/BSI-and-Brexit/
Please note this guidance does not cover goods placed on the Northern Ireland market.