Further Shift On CE policy

Date: 24 Jan 2024

Kevin Hollinrake, business and trade minister with responsibility for repeal and reform of retained EU law, has announced a further amendment to the CE markings policy.

The UK will continue to recognise CE for a further three regulations:

Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products 2010 Regulations (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero),
The Explosives Regulations 2014 (Department for Work and Pensions (Health and Safety Executive))
The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (RoHS) 2012 (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs).

For RoHS, there is a two-part approach:

Where products meet the maximum concentration values set out in Annex II to the EU RoHS Directive (2011/65/EU), we will continue to recognise current EU regulations and CE marking.
Where a product relies on an exemption, we will continue to recognise current EU regulations and CE marking, provided there is an equivalent exemption under the UK Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012.

The minister also announced:

A permanent labelling flexibility to enable importers of goods to supply their details indelibly, on an accompanying document, the packaging or on an adhesive label.
We will also introduce the option for manufacturers to use digital labelling. Businesses will be able to include the UKCA marking, manufacturer details, importer details and the declaration of conformity via, for example, a QR code attached to the product via a label. In scanning the code the information can be accessed by a website or app.
Introduction of a ‘Fast track UKCA’ process, allowing manufacturers to use the UKCA marking to demonstrate compliance, in Great Britain, with either UKCA product requirements or EU product requirements.

Hollinrake’s announcement follows the announcement last year of continued recognition on the UK market of product regulations owned by the Department of Business and Trade.

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Regulations not in scope of this announcement:

"The UK government is taking a tailored approach to product regulation to ensure the interests of UK businesses, consumers and the economy are taken into account. There are certain sectors which require a bespoke approach to conformity assessment, and therefore extending recognition of the CE marking for products under the following regulations is not being included in this legislation".

This includes:

For The Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC):
.   Construction Product Regulations 2013

For The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) [- Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)]
.   The Medical Devices Regulations 2002

For the Department for Transport (DFT)
.   The Railways (interoperability) Regulations 2011
.   Marine Equipment Regulations 2016
.   The Cableway Installations Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/816) and The Cableway Installations (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/1347).
.   The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009
.   Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Regulation 2019/945