UKCA mark guidance

Brexit and CE marking in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland)

The UK Government has issued guidance regarding the replacement of the CE mark by the UKCA mark following Brexit.  The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has produced general guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-the-ukca-mark-from-1-january-2021  This applies to all the EU CE-marking directives.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued specific guidance on construction products: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/construction-products-regulation-from-1-january-2021

• UK notified bodies will cease to be recognised by the EU from 1 January 2021, which means that, unless GB manufacturers have made alternative arrangements with a notified body based in the EU, they must then cease applying the CE marking products requiring a notified body.
• The new UKCA marking can, however, be applied from 1 January 2021.
• The UKCA mark will not be recognised outside Great Britain. 
• Goods exported from Great Britain to the EU 27 will continue to need the CE marking as before. 
• The CE mark will cease to be recognised in Great Britain from 1 January 2022.

Note that it will be necessary to apply the new UKCA marking immediately for products placed on the GB market on or after 1 January 2021[1] if all the following apply: 

Your product

• Is for the market in Great Britain
• Requires mandatory third-party conformity assessment
• The conformity assessment has been carried out by a UK conformity assessment body and your files have not been transferred to an EU-recognised notified body before 1 January 2021.

Special rules will apply to goods placed on the market in Northern Ireland or sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.  Some details remain to be finalised but information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/moving-goods-under-the-northern-ireland-protocol

Further bulletins will be issued as and when more information becomes available.

[1] Note that manufactured goods in a GB manufacturer’s warehouse on 31 December 2020 will be regarded as already on the GB market and the new marking requirements will therefore not apply to them.

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