The UKCA / UKNI and CE Marks

28 Apr 2021

Although we are well into 2021, many member companies whose products carry the CE mark now, may need to be certified with a UKCA / UKNI market after 31.12.2021.

A reminder of the issues surrounding this topic are taken from a member’s bulletin circulated by Chris Buxton on 24 November 2020 below but another interesting and useful source of information is the slide presentation given by BEIS on this subject, date February 2021:

Click here for the BEIS slides.

A quick reminder of the key points:

For goods being placed on the UK market:

  1. From the 1 January 2021 the essential requirements and standards that can be used to demonstrate compliance will be the same as they are now.
  2. Businesses are being encouraged to use the new UKCA mark and regime as soon as possible after 1 January 2021.
  3. However, to allow businesses time to adjust, HMG has agreed that CE marked goods that meet EU requirements can continue to be placed on the GB market until 1st January 2022 in most cases.
  4. If members have already placed their goods or products on the UK or EU market – in circulation- before 1 January 2021, you don’t need to do anything.
  5. From 1 January 2021 products assessed against GB rules by a GB ‘Approved Body’ will need the UKCA marking.  If members self-certify or use an EU Notified Body members will still be able to use the CE marking until 1 January 2022 even for goods that are manufactured after 1 January 2021.
  6. For 24 months after the 1  January 2021 (until 1  January 2023), for most CE marked goods members have the option to affix the UKCA marking on a label affixed to the product or on an accompanying document. 
  7. Members can place the UKCA and CE marking on the same product if it is destined for both the GB and EU markets (so long as the product meets the relevant regulatory requirements for both markets)
  8. If members use the UKCA mark they will need to draw up a UK declaration of conformity. This should be available to market surveillance authorities on request.

On the subject of Conformity assessment bodies:

(a) All UK-based EU ‘notified bodies’ automatically became UK approved bodies from 1  January 2021. (listed on the UKAS website)

Who’s Accredited? – UKAS

(b) Manufacturers may require separate UK and EU certificates from 1 January 2021 – members are encouraged to arrange for separate certificates well in advance of this date.

(c) Outside of any mutual recognition agreement as part of the UK-EU negotiations, mandatory conformity assessments by EU bodies will no longer be recognised in the UK after January 2022.

For those that have asked, where they don’t self-certify, BFPA members are using a selection of accrediting bodies.

Hopefully this information is helpful but it doesn’t specifically answer the question regarding whether or not a member can self-certificate.

Self-Certification

The current official Government guidance in this topic states that:-

When using the UKCA Mark, the following general rules apply:

  • UKCA markings must only be placed on a product by you as the manufacturer or your authorised representative (where allowed for in the relevant legislation)
  • when attaching the UKCA marking, members take full responsibility for their product’s conformity with the requirements of the relevant legislation
  • members must only use the UKCA marking to show product conformity with the relevant UK legislation
  • members must not place any marking or sign that may misconstrue the meaning or form of the UKCA marking to third parties
  • members must not attach other markings on the product which affect the visibility, legibility or meaning of the UKCA marking
  • the UKCA marking cannot be placed on products unless there is a specific requirement to do so in the legislation

This raises the question as to whether or not a representative organisation of a EU company is covered by the first bullet and can self-certificate.

Essentially, the current position is that if the EU manufactured goods currently require accreditation from a third party nominated body, from the 1st of January 2021 you will also need to get accreditation from a third-party UK nominated body for the UKCA Mark.  There are 23 categories of machinery and engineering products that fall under this requirement and more information can be found at PUWER Assessments – Machinery Safety Compliance Services

If your products do not fall under any of the attached criteria you do not need to go to a third party but can undertake self-accreditation for the UKCA Mark.  In order to do so you will need access to the Technical construction files for the products so if you are part of the same parent organisation it shouldn’t be a problem getting hold of technical data.  It may be a little more challenging if you are the distributor for a whole range of different EU companies because they may be less willing to share the technical details and construction files. If members do undertake self-certification, they will of course have to accept full legal responsibility for compliance.

UK CA Mark Graphics

The following link is very useful and also provides links to download the necessary UKCA Mark graphics etc.:

www.gov.uk/guidance/using-the-ukca-mark-from-1-january-2021

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