Wayne Rose, Director and CEO at the BPMA, welcomes the Government’s potentially permanent step away from implementing a UK-specific product conformity mark but believes it should have happened long ago.
On behalf of the £1.9 billion UK pump sector, the British Pump Manufacturers Association (BPMA), has welcomed the recent Department of Business and Trade announcement regarding the indefinite extension to the use of CE marking for UK businesses.
The CE (Conformité Européenne) mark is used across Europe to certify that a wide range of items – including pumps and related equipment – meet stringent product safety standards. As a member of the European Union, the UK had for decades adopted the use of this safety marking for products being sold both within the UK and throughout the European continent.
However, as part of a wide range of proposed post-Brexit legislative changes, the Government had planned for this safety marking to be replaced by a new UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) mark for all goods sold in Great Britain from the end of 2024, a deadline which had already endured several postponements and extensions.
UK businesses and their respective trade organisations have for many years been calling on the authorities to extend the use of the long-established CE mark, explaining that forcing them to meet the new UK rules, which simply duplicate EU product standards, would add a significant and unnecessary cost burden to UK industry. With the UKCA mark not being recognised in the EU and only required for goods sold in Great Britain, manufacturers would have needed to adopt both conformity protocols for products destined for both marketplaces. Notably, this would have also been the case for all overseas manufacturers wishing to sell products into the UK – with the potential risk of a wide range of products becoming unavailable.
At the BPMA, we have been key among this growing voice of objection, having pushed for the retention of the CE Mark from the moment a UK replacement had been suggested. Our pump manufacturing members have always been at the forefront of technology adoption whilst seeking improvement gains for both sustainability and energy efficiency. They have also led the way in developing the current European safety standards, so we welcome this decision by the Department of Business & Trade as a common sense and pragmatic approach to assisting UK Industry.
What is frustrating, though, is that some of our members have already endured the unwelcomed expense and bureaucracy of dual safety mark adoption, to be prepared to continue selling the same products to the same markets when the new mark was mandatory, so although they too will welcome this announcement, a good deal of wasted time, effort and cost has already been expended. I dread to think how much money could have been saved across Government and industry had this frankly inevitable decision been made some time ago, or had the UKCA mark never been dreamt up.
However, despite the political use of the term ‘indefinite extension’ rather than simply the abandonment, I know the BPMA membership, along with many other manufacturers, will be relieved that the cliff-edge deadline of UKCA mark adoption has been removed and that they can now redirect their efforts into product innovation and business growth.
