CLC publishes Conformity Marking of Construction Guide

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has published a new guide to the marking of construction projects after the Brexit transition period with the European Union expires on 31 December 2020.

The Brexit working group of the Construction Leadership Council has published advice and information on the conformity marking of construction products after the expiration of the transition period with the European Union on 31 December 2020.

From 1 January 2021 there will be three different product marks that manufacturers, and others in the supply chain, may need to apply.

The rules governing these marks will depend on where the product is intended to be used.

The three marks are:

• The EU's marking for product conformity (CE marking)
• The United Kingdom Conformity Assessed mark (UKCA mark)
• The United Kingdom Northern Ireland mark (UK(NI) mark), which is additional to the CE marking in some instances.

Dependent on the regulations of each jurisdiction, a manufacturer may be required to use the services of a conformity assessment body to show their product meets the required criteria.

The guide helps businesses plan for the changes by presenting several scenarios that explains which legislation will apply to products, what marking is needed and which conformity assessment body they may need to assess a product's compliance before placing it on the relevant market.

Commenting, Peter Caplehorn, Chief Executive of the Construction Products Association and Chair of the Standards and Alignment Workstream of the BREXIT Working Group, said: "We hope the guidance is of help to clarify the situation with regard to marking of products, especially as we transition from one system to another; this is complex, and we have opted to use a tabulated format to explain the options.

"Especially with the options for Northern Ireland we have distilled the guidance down to the basics for ease of understanding. We also recognise that there are several areas still to be worked on across this whole topic and some revision may be necessary in the coming months.

"The group are also working on a number of further documents around information that supports the marks including testing, standards, certification processes, and organisations providing these or supporting manufacturers when placing products on the market. These will be made available in the forthcoming weeks."

The guidance is the fourth publication in a suite of business readiness advice that the group intends to publish ahead of 31 December 2020. 

The guidance can be downloaded here.