Article by Nick Mellor, Managing Director of LEIA – 15 March 2019

As defined by article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, there is a two year period from the UK’s notification of until departure of the UK from the EU.  UK law confirmed this as at 23:00 UK time on 29 March 2019.  This is the legal default and will happen unless there is a majority in the UK Parliament for one of the alternatives.  One alternative is for the UK Parliament to ratify the withdrawal agreement between the UK government and the EU of November 2018, but this failed for the second time on Tuesday 12 March.

At a further vote on Thursday 14 March, the UK Parliament voted to seek a short extension to Brexit until 30 June if the UK Parliament also approves the withdrawal agreement (at a third vote) and a much longer delay if the UK Parliament rejects it.

The UK cannot extend the Article 50 process unilaterally – it needs the agreement of all the EU27 who might want to make any agreement conditional on the UK having a plan to come to a conclusion.  A short delay to 30 June avoids UK involvement in European Parliament elections.  With the longer delay, other options become possible such as a second referendum but this has already been defeated in a vote in the UK Parliament.

Where does this leave us?  It seems that there will be a third vote for the withdrawal agreement and that it might be passed.  There will be a discussion about a delay to Brexit at the EU meeting of 21 March.  It might be that the risk that the UK leaves the EU with no deal is finally reducing but, at the time of writing, this is still present.

We have been keeping our members regularly updated with guidance from the UK government about various aspects which would impact them if the UK leaves the EU without a deal including the regulations and the product standards applicable in the future.

BSI membership of European standardisation organisations CEN and CENELEC

Most of the product standards used in the UK lift and escalator industry are CEN standards which we have used for many years.  There are many UK delegates working on a wide range of standards at CEN/TC 10 and elsewhere.   Although CEN and CENELEC, the European standardisation bodies, are not part of the EU, agreements are needed for BSI, the UK standardisation body, to remain a member after Brexit.  BSI has been working with CEN and CENELEC to secure these.

On 23 November BSI confirmed agreements with CEN and CENELEC which secure the future of BSI as a member of these organisations during the transition period until the end of December 2020.  During this period they will be reviewed with a view to BSI’s permanent full membership from the end of December 2020.  We have expected this outcome as we have guided our members.

This move confirms our continued commitment to using CEN product safety standards to which UK delegates will continue to make a significant contribution.  Most important for our members, it confirms that there will be no “de-harmonisation” of standards and that we will continue to work with the same standards. 

UK regulations in the event the UK leaves the EU with no deal

In the event the UK leaves the EU with no deal, amended UK Lifts Regulations (which enacts the EU Lifts Directive) and Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations (which enacts the EU Machinery Directive) would come into force.  Some important consequences would be as follows.

• Current EU essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs) would be copied directly as UK essential requirements.
• Existing harmonised standards such as BS EN 81 and BS EN 115 families and others would become UK designated standards, used to demonstrate conformity with UK essential requirements.
• There would be equivalent UK conformity assessment routes to the current routes.
• UK Notified Bodies would become UK Approved Bodies.
• A new UKCA mark would be available where the conformity assessment procedures of the new UK Regulations are followed.  This would apply where a UK Approved Body is used for the conformity assessment. For more on this please click here.
• Lifts, safety components for lifts, lifting appliances, escalators and moving walks meeting EU requirements (CE-marked) could be placed on the UK market (known as unilateral recognition) for period of time.

Our previous guidance about the use of Notified Bodies was as follows:

• Conformity assessment carried out by UK Approved Bodies would not be recognised in the EU 27.  This is in line with the earlier paper published by the European Commission and the Q&A published here.
• Companies who use a UK Notified Body for conformity assessment in the EU 27 should check with their notified body.  Some UK Notified Bodies are transferring certification to their EU 27 operations.  This is a particular problem for companies in Ireland as there are no Notified Bodies for lifts currently based in Ireland.

There are many other implications which we will need to work through and update our members.  What is almost certain is that, by the time you read this, the situation will have changed!