Government to allow businesses to continue to use European CE certification for another year.
Businesses will have an additional year to apply new product safety markings for most products placed on the market in England, Scotland and Wales, the government has announced this week.
The UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking allows the UK to have control over its goods regulations, maintaining the high product safety standards expected in the UK.
Recognising the impact of the pandemic on businesses, the government will extend this deadline to 1 January 2023 to apply UKCA marks for certain products to demonstrate compliance with product safety regulations, rather than 1 January 2022.
The UKCA marking replaces the product safety labelling the UK previously used while a member of the EU, such as the CE mark.
This week’s announcement follows the government’s extensive and ongoing engagement with business groups and reflects the issues businesses have raised, particularly given the impact of the pandemic.
Businesses must take action to ensure they are ready to apply UKCA marking by 1 January 2023, the final deadline.
In a statement, the UK business department said the UKCA mark was designed to allow the UK to have control over its regulation of goods after Brexit. It added that extending the deadline in the light of the continued impact of the pandemic would provide “clarity and certainty” for business.
The government say it will continue to engage with manufacturers to ensure they understand what they need to do to get ready, including through a new series of webinars. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has already run several webinars in the last few months and engaged extensively through trade associations.
