Chimneys & flues: comment
www.heatingandventilating.net
Where to for flue and chimney standards
The opportunity for Britain to become a global powerhouse again for the quality and standards of manufacturing – of products such as flues and chimneys – is slipping through our fingers because of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, according to A1 Flue Systems director John Hamnett
re-establish our reputation around the world for the quality of our manufacturing. I can remember a time only a few years ago when the British Kitemark meant something: everyone knew what it was and everyone knew that if a product had a Kitemark, then it was of the highest standard of manufacturing. We wanted to get back to that, and, with
A
Brexit, we were sold a dream that we as a country could retake control of the things that mattered most to us – in our case, it was setting even higher standards in the manufacture of flue and chimney systems for use in projects not just in the UK but globally. There’s no doubt that the CE Mark has been a good thing for our industry overall, and, whether we’re in or out of the EU, everyone will still have to operate to that level – particularly if they want to trade with EU countries because that’s the benchmark. It’s a good standard, and we have led the
way to achieving the CE Mark for a complete flue system. It would have been much easier to obtain the CE Mark for individual component parts, but we aimed high and went for the complete system – and this paid dividends because it has been a factor in securing projects, particularly some of the highest-profile projects, such as the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station.
26 June 2019 You will still be able to use the CE marking
s a business, we wanted to leave the EU for the simple reason that it would give the UK the opportunity to
Whichever way you look at it, though, the
fact remains that the CE Mark is a compliance standard and not a quality standard. There’s a yawning gap to have a standard that encompasses both – if we did, it would give UK manufacturing a real USP on the world stage. However, a lot of things have changed
since the referendum, and what should have been the starting gun for businesses like ours to up their game even more on flue and chimney standards is, sadly, becoming another casualty of the circus at Westminster. Like the Brexit negotiations themselves, the new UK-specific marking, the UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed), which has been put in place to give us a UK version of the CE Mark, feels to me like a fudge. Current advice is that: “The UKCA marking is the new UK product marking that will be used, subject to parliamentary approval, for certain goods which are currently subject to CE marking and which are being placed on the UK market if we leave the EU without a deal. “The rules around using the new UKCA marking will mirror those which currently apply for the application of the CE marking. “You will still be able to use the CE marking for products being placed on the UK market for a time-limited period unless your product requires third party conformity assessment and if this has been carried out by a UK ‘notified body’. In these cases, you will instead have to apply the new UKCA marking (when) the UK leaves the EU.
for products being placed on the UK market if any mandatory third-party assessment was carried out by an EU-recognised notified body or if the certificate of conformity previously held by a UK body has been transferred to an EU-recognised body. The UKCA marking will not be
recognised on the EU market, and products currently needing a CE marking will continue to require a CE marking for sale in the EU.”
www.gov.uk – published February 2, 2019. Sadly, this is more of the same designed
to protect the status quo, rather than thinking big. I appreciate that in the circumstances, it’s all that can be done to create a UK version of current EU standards – but we really are waving the white flag of surrender without even trying to do something momentous. In our heart of hearts, we have had to
John Hamnett is a director of A1 Flue Systems
accept that we won’t be going back to the British Kitemark. There are a number of practical reasons for this, including the fact that there’s no obvious organisation with a remit or an appetite to pick this up, it could cost the UK millions of pounds to set this all up and, more importantly, there’s no capacity to police it. The only good thing coming out of this is that it is strengthening our own resolve to keep pushing back on the factors that we can control and, as a business, to keep setting higher standards for ourselves in designing, manufacturing and installing the highest-quality flue and chimney systems in the UK.
www.heatingandventilating.net
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