The UK government has had significant issues with the implementation the UK’s post-Brexit products safety conformity mark, the UKCA mark, with ever lengthening deadlines until it is required across all sectors.

Now the UK government has announced that it intends to extend the recognition of the European product safety conformity marking, the so-called CE mark, "indefinitely beyond December 2024" in respect of the 18 regulations that fall under the remit of the Department for Business and Trade. These include Toys, PPE, machinery and low voltage electrical equipment. The government’s announcement confirms that there are other rules in respect of CE for other sectors, including medical devices and construction products, but that relevant departments either "have communicated or will communicate” plans in due course.

In respect of medical devices the latest position can be viewed here. The position is extremely complex but in short there is significant delay to implementation, with the current deadline for many products for transition from CE marking being 30 June 2030.

This constitutes another significant change to the UK government’s initial ambitions in this area, and it is possible that the UKCA mark could be abandoned altogether. That would leave the UK in a position where it does not have its own product safety conformity system.

Certain businesses welcome the delay to implementation, but there are many who are concerned about the uncertainties created by the recent history of delays and inconsistent implementation of regulations across sectors. The imminent election (at some point in the next 15 months) will likely mean a reluctance on the part of the current UK government to draw attention to this and other areas of challenge created by Brexit, and the opposition also view it is a political "hot potato" that is best not handled at this time. However there will be pressure on any new government to act decisively to resolve this and other areas of uncertainty created by Brexit, so further changes to this and related areas are to be expected over the next two years.