A British official notice is officially issued, in regard to the transition period of CE marketing to UKCA implementation.
Previous policy was: after the end of the Brexit transition period, from January 1, 2021, electrical products entering the UK market need to carry the UKCA marking. As a transitional policy, the CE mark can still be accepted as a compliance mark for entering the UK market before January 1, 2022.
On August 24, 2021, the British government officially released the latest guidelines for the use of UKCA:
Products placed on the Great Britain market from January 1, 2023, must use the UKCA mark. Before that, brand owners can still affix the CE mark on their products to sell to the UK market.
You can check the official release guidelines from this UK government website:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-the-ukca-marking
Analysis of new UKCA announcements
This notice means that the extension of the CE mark in the UK GB (England, Wales and Scotland) market will be extended from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023, and the UKCA mark enforcement date will be postponed to January 1, 2023.
We assume part of the reason for this extension is: retesting those products that have always used the CE mark, and the resources for the UKCA marking cannot keep up with the large amount of testing needs. To allow companies more time to adapt to the new requirements, the time to accept the CE mark is extended. This allows the relevant departments to have more time to establish resource allocation and retest the products for UK compliance issue.
Advice from EU-REP-Service for UKCA compliance
1. UKCA has come into effect:
The UKCA mark has come into effect on January 1, 2021. Although the mandatory implementation date has been postponed, the British authorities encourage manufacturers to ensure full compliance with the UKCA mark as soon as possible.
EU-REP-Service recommends that manufacturers start testing and certification of products sold to the British market in time, and use the UKCA mark on their products at latest end of December 2022. Brand owners are recommended to coordinate with their suppliers for the new testing.
2. Modification of UKCA enforcement date:
The enforcement date of the UKCA mark has been postponed from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023. If clients are using our EU responsible person services, they can still sell the CE marked products to UK until the last day of 2022.
3. Pay attention to the requirements of British importers:
From January 1, 2023, the UKCA mark must be used to enter the Great Britain market. It should be noted that products entering the UK market from the EU area also need a new UK importer to perform the duties of an importer.