REGULATIONS OPINION
CE: CHECK EVERYTHING!
Standards are voluntary and there is no obligation for compliance in the UK, says Hywel Davies, but the impending Construction Products Regulation will make CE marking mandatory
In the UK, standards are generally voluntary agreements
for a product or a service to meet an agreed specification. This ‘standard specification’ is then available for anyone to use on a voluntary basis. There is usually no compulsion to use the standard – so that any product meeting what is deemed to be an ‘equivalent’ standard may be used. However, when regulators use a
specific standard to specify something, the standard becomes mandatory. But the voluntary nature of construction standards in the UK is set to change. From 1 July 2013, the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) replaces the Construction Products Directive (CPD). The European Commission has confirmed that harmonised European standards (ENs) based on the CPD or, in future, the CPR, have to be considered as mandatory because, when a construction product is covered by the ‘harmonised’ element of an EN, the only way to assess and to declare its performance is by using the assessment methods and criteria included in the EN.
Harmonised standards A ‘European standard’ is one adopted by a European standards body1
.
However, a European standard is not ‘harmonised’ unless it is the subject of a ‘mandate’ and a reference is published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU). A mandate is a specific instruction
from the European Commission to a European standardisation body, such as CEN or CENELEC, to prepare a standard that at least addresses a list of prescribed properties or characteristics, although CEN/ CENELEC may choose to add others. A standard prepared under such
a ‘mandate’ contains an ‘Annex ZA’. This provides details of the clauses that
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address the ‘mandate’ – these are the harmonised provisions of the standard – and only these clauses. The standard may also contain additional clauses included by the standards committee, but these clauses are not harmonised, and do not affect the CE marking of a product against Annex ZA.
Making CE marking mandatory This has significant implications for all those in the European Economic Area who develop, use and specify by reference to construction product standards. Under the CPR, CE
marking is mandatory from 1 July 2013, and the only means of CE marking is compliance with the harmonised standard. So, under the CPR, a standard becomes mandatory in Europe, and is the sole and exclusive route to CE marking once it is: harmonised (referenced in the OJEU); adopted in at least one member state (but under CEN rules all CEN members must adopt it anyway); and any period of co- existence with national standards has ended.
Article 17(5) of the CPR states
that: ‘From the date of the end of the co-existence period, the harmonised standard shall be the only means used for drawing up a declaration of performance for a construction
product covered by it’. And Article 4(1) of the CPR requires that, when a construction product is covered by a harmonised standard, the manufacturer has to draw up a ‘declaration of performance’ when placing the product on the market. This is all mandatory, and starts on 1 July 2013. This makes harmonised standards mandatory, and has implications for public procurement. It is currently commonplace to specify that a product shall meet a given standard, with the allowance of products that do not
This is an entirely new departure for standards in the UK
meet that standard but are deemed to be ‘equivalent’. Under Article 4(1) this will no longer be possible for a product covered by the CPR, which simply must meet the standard. It also has implications for installers. No longer will it be possible to replace a product with another that the installer is more familiar with, or is cheaper, or even one that is considered more appropriate. If that product does not carry a CE mark, based on a ‘declaration of performance’ against the appropriate harmonised European standard, then it cannot be used.
Maintenance and repair implications It may have implications for maintenance and repair activity, too. If a component of a system has failed and that component is covered by a harmonised standard, then the component may only be replaced with a CE marked replacement. This means manufacturers must
comply with European standards where the product is harmonised and they want to sell in Europe, which includes the UK. This is an entirely new departure for standards in the UK, and it remains to be seen how it will work out. In the meantime, it would be prudent to remember that CE stands for Communitee European, but also for Check Everything, or Caveat Emptor. CIBSE has established a small working group to look at the detailed implications of the CPR for the sector.
References
1. The two principle European Standards bodies for construction products are the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) or the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation CENELEC, the electrical standards body.
l HYWEL DAVIES is technical director of CIBSE
www.cibse.org
April 2013 CIBSE Journal
17
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