Responding to the Government’s latest announcement on conformity assessment marking, BCC Head of Trade Policy, William Bain, said: 

“Business will welcome this common-sense approach to showing that products sold in Great Britain have met safety, health and environmental rules. Crucially, it will help keep costs down for firms and prices for consumers. 

“These new policies take us further down the road to providing business with the stability and confidence to make investments in long-term arrangements for testing and marking of these goods. 

“Firms will be particularly pleased that the Ecodesign Regulations will now be able to permanently use CE marking, and that legislation underpinning these announcements is due to be in place by the Spring.  

“But there are still some issues which need to be addressed. We need speedy decisions from Government on widening this policy out to construction products from 2025 onwards. 

“Conformity assessment bodies in the UK would also greatly benefit from being approved to test to CE standards and requirements. So, it’s vital the Government negotiates a mutual recognition agreement with the EU, to rebuild testing capacity in Great Britain.” 

More information on the Government’s planned changes can be found here.