UKCA MARK FAQ
An Approved Body is an organization (often a third party certification or inspection body) that has been appointed by the UK Government. An Approved Body will be appointed based on designated requirements, such as knowledge, experience, competence, independence and resources to carry out conformity assessments of products which need to be UKCA marked in accordance with the relevant regulations.
CEM International Ltd has been appointed by the relevant UK departments as an Approved Body for the following regulations:
- • Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008
- • Radio Equipment Regulations 2017
- • Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 2016
- • Construction Product Regulation 2011
As an Approved Body for UKCA marking, we at CEM will be able to provide you with the most effective and professional service to enable you to UKCA mark your product. The service may include some or all of the following:
- • Identification of applicable regulations and standards
- • Identification of test requirements, and making the necessary arrangements for testing your product
- • Reviewing technical files
- • Carrying out an on-site visit to ensure continuous conformity of your product to the regulations
- • Lodging your T(C)F
The procedure for certification includes the following stages:
- • Application by the client
- • Contract review by CEM
- • Signing of the Contract by CEM and the client
- • Assessment, including any necessary tests and the review of the T(C)F
- • Implementation of correction and corrective actions, if necessary, by the client
- • Recommendation from the technical assessor
- • Issue of the certificate of conformity (or the assessment report)
There is no standard duration for our certification process. The time the process takes is largely dependent upon the following factors in relation to the product in question:
- • Complexity of the product
- • Test situation of the product
- • Condition of preparation of the technical files for the product
- • Cooperation and commitment of the applicant for UKCA marking services
A Declaration of Conformity (DofC) is a legal requirement. The declaration is a statement that tells the purchaser of the product the regulations and the standards with which the product complies and who, in the company, to contact in case of dispute.
If your product is covered by a UKCA marking regulation (of which there may be many), it needs to comply with all the relevant regulations before it can be UKCA marked.
The UKCA marking regulations are written into UK law.
In the UK all UKCA marking regulations have been made criminal law. Failure to comply with the appropriate regulations may result in one or more of the following actions: a fine, immediate withdrawal of product from the market; impounding of stock or, since an offence could result in a criminal conviction, a prison sentence.
Most EN standards are based on the international equivalent one. For example EN55022 is equivalent to CISPR 22. This helps manufacturers when designing products as it means that a single design will be acceptable for many different markets (with certain exceptions). This does not mean that market entry is automatically gained as there will be different administrative requirements through the world.
The following should at least help to clarify matters.
The Declaration has two purposes. The first is to provide the recipient (generally the user of the machine, or an enforcement officer such as the customs authorities or HSE) with some information about who was responsible for the UKCA marking of the equipment, what regulations they UKCA marked it under and which standards they applied in order to do this.
The second purpose is to concentrate the mind of the ‘responsible person’ and make them consider whether the process of attestation to the Regulations has been properly completed. As you will probably know, the UKCA marking regulations all contain duties for the supplier of equipment which can generally be summarised as follows:
- 1. Ensure the product complies with the essential health and safety/protection requirements of the Regulations (usually achieved by the application of appropriate standards);
- 2. Where series production is envisaged, ensure that manufacturing controls are in place so as to make sure that all products manufactured are compliant;
- 3. Maintain appropriate technical documentation;
- 4. Apply the UKCA mark to the product and complete the Declaration of Conformity.
Only when all of the above have been properly completed is it legitimate for the product to bear the UKCA Mark. The person who signs the Declaration should have the knowledge that these things have been done, and it would be appropriate for it to be someone whose management responsibility includes the processes that the above duties entail.
In signing the Declaration, the signatory makes a binding commitment on behalf of the Responsible Person (which may be a corporate body, etc.) that the above processes are properly completed. They sign as a representative of the Responsible Person, and their personal liability is dependent on their responsibilities within the company. Both individuals and companies can be held responsible for the activities of a corporate body. Normally the director(s) of a company are held liable for any activities of that company, but if the directors can show that they fulfilled their duty to provide good management and adequate resources to their staff, and it was the actions (or inactions) of a junior staff member which caused a breach, the junior staff member will have to answer for their personal actions rather than the Director. Directors have certain specific duties which is why they have to be formally appointed and notified to Companies House, but all members of staff have other legal duties which are appropriate to their position, and just because someone is not a Director does not mean that they cannot be brought before the Courts and asked to account for themselves in the event of the company making a major error in which they were involved.
It’s an important point of law that you cannot re-assign your criminal obligations by contract, although you may be able to subcontract the actions which fulfillment of those obligations entails. A company Director has many duties under the law, and most of the actions which those duties require are actually delegated to junior staff. UKCA marking obligations are just further such duties, which a Director will assign to appropriately qualified staff. However, the duties remain the legal responsibility of the Director and just because he tells someone else to sign the Declaration of Conformity does not mean that he is not liable if the work is not done correctly.
There are several key elements which will determine the validity of the certification issued by the Company:
- Changes to the product. In particular, those required elements required by the applicable regulations/ standards. In such cases, the certification holder should submit an explanation of all relevant changes to CEM in order for the company to make evaluation about the validity of the issued certification.
- Applied regulation against which the certification is issued. UKCA certification process needs to be conducted according to the relevant regulations, hence, if there is any major change to the regulations, the certificate will automatically become invalid. The certification holder has the responsibility to periodically check the latest regulations status. Applicable guidance can also be found on the Company website. For details, the certification holder may check the associated links in the relevant service description section of the Company website.
- Designated Standards used as presumption for product compliance. Any major changes to the designated standards will invalidate the certificate issued by the Company. The certification holder should pay attention to relevant changes of the designated standards. Applicable guidance can also be found on the Company website. For details, the certification holder may check the associated links in the relevant service description section of the Company website.
If you do not agree with the certification decision by CEM International, you may appeal to the following procedure:
If you are nit happy with CEM certification service, a certified product and/or client by CEM, you may make a comolain to the following procedure:
