The Government announced last week that businesses will be given an additional two years to apply the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking to their products. This extends the period that a CE mark may be applied to products being placed on the market until 31 December 2024.
The UKCA marking will replace the CE mark as part of the Government's plans for the post-Brexit product safety framework. However, the deadline by which businesses must begin to use the UKCA marking for products placed on the market in Great Britain (GB) has been delayed on several occasions. This most recent delay is said by the Government to be due to the difficult economic conditions faced by businesses caused by the recent global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and high energy prices.
Businesses will therefore be able to continue to place products on the market in GB with the CE marking until 31 December 2024. The use of the new UKCA marking will only be mandatory following that date. Businesses can of course choose to apply the UKCA marking to products being placed on the GB market before that date.
This extension sits alongside two other measures being introduced to reduce the costs of retesting products and labelling. To reduce labelling costs, the Government will allow businesses to affix the UKCA mark and include importer information for products from EEA countries on an accompanying document or label until 31 December 2027 (this transitional provision was previously scheduled to come to an end on 31 December 2025). The Government will also allow conformity assessment activities for CE marking undertaken by 31 December 2024 to be used by manufacturers as the basis for the UKCA marking until 31 December 2027 to reduce costs associated with retesting.
These proposed changes are due to be enacted by way of secondary legislation that has been laid before Parliament for approval. We will be monitoring future developments over the coming weeks.
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