Since most machine tools do not
require mandatory third-party conformity
assessment, this requirement won’t apply
to many. Self-certi cation is permitted for
all machinery, except those types listed in
the so-called Annex IV of the EU
Machinery Safety Directive. Companies
not making such machinery may choose to
voluntarily engage a third-party to support
their conformance activities, however.
The government website adds that the
UKCA regime does not apply to existing
stock, for example if the good was fully
manufactured and ready to place on the
market before 1 January 2021.
Government advice on the acceptance
criteria for continued use of CE marking for
Great Britain is as follows: “You will be able
to use the CE marking until 31 December
2021, if any of the following apply: you
currently apply CE marking to your good on
the basis of self-declaration; any mandatory
third-party conformity assessment was
carried out by an EU-recognised Noti ed Body (including a
body in a country with which the EU has a relevant mutual
recognition agreement); or if the certi cate of conformity
previously held by a UK-approved body has been
transferred to an EU-recognised noti ed body.”
BEIS higher executive of cer Abigail Gambell con rms
that a company in Great Britain could continue to
manufacture a machine tool in the EU, using an EU
Noti ed Body for CE marking and place it on the market
throughout 2021. After that, UKCA marking would be
required, however.
DIVERGENCE IS A TWO-WAY STREET
There’s one further quali cation for continued use of the
CE mark. Says of cial guidance: “You can only place CEmarked
goods that meet EU requirements in Great Britain
while UK and EU requirements are the same. This will be
the case on 1 January 2021 and there are no UK plans to
diverge at this time. Nonetheless you are encouraged to
be ready as soon as possible, and by 1 January 2022 at
the latest.”
So, any divergence of UKCA from CE requirements on
the UK’s part is not seen until that latter date, it would
appear to be heavily implied. But the EU could diverge/
change, as is made clear, and then things are different.
“If the EU changes their rules and you CE mark your
goods based on new EU rules that are different from the
requirements in the UK, you will no longer be able to use
the CE marking in the UK. This will be the case even if the
change happens before 1 January 2022.”
Boniface highlights that while UKCA and CE start off
the same, the move to UKCA “gives us the ability to shape
product regulation in the UK, which is obviously a key
ambition for the government”.
So, what happens on 1 January 2021 is that
“conformance will be against UK regulations, but the UK
regulations will essentially be the EU Directive brought
onto the UK statute”, he encapsulates. The harmonised
technical standards underpinning assessment will become
BS pre x standards, but again will be a port of existing
standards used in CE marking, he further adds.
“Instead of EU harmonised standards, the UK will
identify UK-designated standards and this will provide
presumption of conformity in a similar way EU ones do
now,” says Finch Consulting’s Wheeler. (Manufacturers
need not use harmonised standards, but automatic
presumption of conformity then vanishes.) And he goes
on: “Manufacturers will need to produce a dedicated
declaration of conformity and/or incorporation for UKCA
marking. So, if the product is also CE marked, there will be
at least two versions of these declarations. I say at least
two, because of the Northern Ireland situation.”
Now, there are more subtleties within all of this, as
BEIS’ Gambell points out. For example, importers have a
stronger duty to ensure goods are compliant than do
distributors. And a company within Great Britain that was a
distributor for EU goods, or of those imported by an EU
country-based company, will now become an importer, if it
is the rst to place a machine tool on the GB market. (That
also operates the other way, too.) So, such companies will
need to make sure, for example, that goods are labelled
with details that include the company name and a contact
address, although until 31 December 2022 these details
can be on the accompanying documentation, rather than
UK-produced
machines, such as
this UK-designed
and built CV5-500
will be marked
with both UKCA
and CE marks
from January
2022, Mazak
reports, but CE
marking alone
will continue
throughout 2021
12 December 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
/www.machinery.co.uk