From 1 January 2021, UKCA (UK Conformity Assessment) marking will replace CE marking as a requirement for goods entering the Great Britain (GB) market, including England, Scotland and Wales. This will affect all product manufacturers who will need to ensure that products and their packaging show the new mark.
The UKCA mark is the new UK product marking that will be required for certain products being placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). It covers most products that previously required the CE mark. This declares that the product conforms to all applicable UK legislative requirements and that appropriate conformity assessment procedures have been successfully completed.
From 1 January 2021, the technical requirements for UKCA-marked equipment will be identical for CE-marked equipment. The intention is for that to remain throughout 2021, but EU legislative changes may have an impact. CE marking will continue to be used until 1 January 2022 in most cases.
The technical standards used will be fundamentally the same, however although the technical content is the same, for UKCA marking, the BSi Group versions of the standards should be used.
The UK Government has issued some comprehensive guidelines explaining how the new UKCA mark should be applied and the deadlines that need to be met. Over time, the UKCA mark will become controlled in a similar way to the present CE mark, but for the immediate future until January 2023 it won’t need to be permanently fixed, so for example it could be just a label. There’s separate guidance for medical devices on the UK Government’s website. In terms of technical documentation, documentation must be kept to demonstrate that your products conform with regulatory requirements. So it’s recommended that you keep accurate records in a technical file.
In most instances there should be sufficient time to build these changes into your packaging requirements, however, should you require self-adhesive labels or a packaging overlabelling service, Croft Printing will be happy to help.
Find out more about affixing the UKCA marking. Please note that UKCA marking is not recognised on the EU market.