The UK government has announced that businesses will have an additional year to apply new product safety markings for most products placed on the market in Great Britain.

The UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking is used to confirm that products comply with product safety standards.  It replaces the CE marking used while the UK was a member of the EU.  

The government says that it recognises the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business.  As a result, it has decided that the deadline for applying the UKCA mark will be extended to 1 January 2023, rather than 1 January 2022. The exception is medical devices, where businesses will not need to use the UKCA marking until 1 July 2023. To extend the deadline, the government will introduce a statutory instrument under section 8 of the European Union Withdrawal Act 2018 later this year.

Therefore, businesses now need to take action to ensure they are ready to apply UKCA marking by 1 January 2023, the final deadline. We wrote an article about the new rules in May 2021.

Under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Northern Ireland will continue to recognise the CE marking for goods placed on the market in Northern Ireland. Businesses will need to use the UKNI marking if they use a UK Conformity Assessment Body to test their products.