Placing work equipment and machinery on the market after Brexit

Now the UK has left the EU, the requirements for placing work equipment and machinery on the UK and EU markets, including arrangements for conformity assessment, marking and labelling have changed.

The government's priority is to ensure that only safe and compliant products are placed on the market. The changes made to the UK's legal product safety framework will allow it to remain operable.

This guidance gives an overview of what has changed from 1 January 2021, what you need to do and links to further information on the GOV.UK and HSE websites.

Contents

CE marked goods on the GB market

CE marked workplace products will be accepted in GB until 31st December 2022. This includes workplace goods which have been assessed by an EU-recognised notified body.

GOV.UK - Placing manufactured goods on the market in Great Britain.

Placing products for use at work on the GB market: a product safety guide.

The new UK mark

The UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark is the new UK product mark for workplace products and other goods. From 1 January 2021 UKCA marking began to replace CE marking for goods being placed on the GB market.

From 1 January 2023 you must use the UKCA mark on all workplace goods products.

Up until 31 December 2023 the UKCA mark can be placed directly on the product or on an accompanying document. From 1 January 2024 the UKCA mark must be placed directly on the product. You should start building this into your design process so you can meet this requirement in time.

The UKCA mark will not be recognised for products being placed on the EU market.

GOV.UK - Using the UKCA marking

To receive the latest information and details on how to apply for UKCA marking of your goods subscribe to our free email newsletter and notifications.

Placing manufactured goods on the market in Northern Ireland

GOV.UK - Placing manufactured goods on the market in Northern Ireland.

Using the UKNI marking

GOV.UK - How to use the UKNI marking.

Placing workplace products and goods on the EU market

If you placed your goods on the market in an EU country (or in the UK) before 1 January 2021, you do not need to do anything new.

Summary of markings, goods and markets

This useful table from GOV.UK summarises accepted markings for different goods and markets.

  Type of good (see list of product areas below) Accepted marking or combination of markings*
Placing goods on the market in Northern Ireland Manufactured goods being placed on the market in NI using an EU conformity assessment body CE
Manufactured goods being placed on the market in NI using a UK-based body CE and UKNI
Placing goods on the market in Great Britain Manufactured goods being placed on the GB market until the end of 2022 UKCA or CE
Manufactured goods placed on the GB market from 1 Jan 2023 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
Placing goods on the EU market Manufactured goods being placed on the EU market CE

*You may use combinations of the product markings listed in each box and your goods may be acceptable with more than one marking. For example, a product with both the CE and UKCA markings can be placed on the EU market. However, for the EU market the CE mark must appear without the UKNI indication as goods bearing the 'CE and UKNI' marking are not acceptable in the EU market. This means these goods must be manufactured to EU rules and cannot be assessed by a body based in the UK.

Notified Bodies and Conformity Assessments

From 1 January 2021 UK-based 'Notified Bodies', who did not choose to continue to also meet EU requirements, became UK Approved Bodies under UK legislation. UK Approved Bodies are not able to apply a CE mark, but will instead apply the UKCA mark.

GOV.UK - Conformity assessment and accreditation

Further HSE guidance

We have updated our guidance on work equipment and machinery to reflect these changes.

The links below will take you to further new or revised guidance:

Frequently asked questions:

Updated: 2023-02-23