All new work equipment and machinery for the UK market must comply with one or more legal requirements.
Work Equiptment

Now that the UK has left the EU, some rules and procedures have changed concerning the design, manufacture and supply of work equipment.

All new work equipment and machinery for the UK market must comply with one or more legal requirements to ensure it can be used safely, including the need to use a conformity marking. Previously this would have been done with CE marking or other appropriate marking (such as the wheel marking or Pi marking).

What are the new conformity marking rules?

The new conformity assessment marking as of 1 January 2022 for Great Britain is the UKCA marking. This applies to most goods that previously required CE marking. Certain products however that are lawfully CE marked will be accepted in the UK until 1 January 2022. We have summarised the accepted markings for each relevant market here (you can see the full table here):

  Type of good (see list of product areas at the end of this guidance) Accepted markings or combination of markings
Placing goods on the market in Great Britain
  • Manufactured goods being placed on the GB market until the end of 2021
  • Manufactured goods placed on the GB market from 1 Jan 2022
  • UKCA or CE
  • UKCA
Placing qualifying Northern Ireland goods on the market in Great Britain (unfettered access) Qualifying Northern Ireland goods being placed on the GB market under unfettered access CE or CE and UKNI

When to use the UKCA marking

You only need to use the new UKCA marking before 1 January 2022 if all of the following apply:

  • Your product is covered by legislation which requires the UKCA marking
  • Your product requires mandatory third-party conformity assessment
  • Conformity assessment has been carried out by a UK conformity assessment body

What about existing stock?

The rule does not apply to products manufactured, CE marked, and market-ready before 1 January 2021. This means that even if the certification was carried out by a UK-based copy you do not need to use the UKCA marking.

However, you can only place the goods on the GB market, not the EEA market, and only until 31 December 2021, after which you will have to switch to the new UKCA marking. If you are placing existing CE-marked goods on the NI market, the CE marking must be followed by the UKNI marking in cases where mandatory assessment has been done by a UK body.

You can find out more on the gov.uk website.

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