Introduction
Update: The UK government has recently extended the deadline for mandatory UKCA marking on applicable goods sold in the UK to 1st January 2023.
As of 1st January 2023, goods subject to CE and not classed as medical devices, must be compliant to UKCA and marked accordingly if they are to be put on the UK market. UKCA marking officially became a requirement as of 1st January 2021 with two years of grace giving manufacturers and importers two years to get their CE goods compliant with UKCA regulations. Medical devices have until 30th June 2023 before they require a UKCA mark to be put on the UK market. This applies to both applicable UK manufactured goods and imported goods.
1st January 2023 is effectively the deadline for manufacturers to make this transition, goods place on the UK market on after 31st December must be UKCA. If the goods were placed on the market before 31st December 2022, these goods will not need to be recertificated as they can continue to circulate on the market until they reach the end user.
Placing on the market is defined as a fully manufactured (individual) good that is ‘placed on the market’ when a written or verbal agreement (or offer of an agreement) to transfer ownership or possession or other property rights in the product that is exchanged. This does not require physical transfer of the goods.
This means that individual UK manufactured CE marked products sold, loaned or released in UK in any way within the UK from the manufacturer before 1st January 2023 will not require a UKCA mark.
For example, a computer model sold in to a UK customer on 31st of December 2022 only requires CE marking, another computer of the same model sold on 2nd of January 2023 to the same customer will require a UKCA mark. That unit can be bare both the UKCA mark and the CE mark as long as it meets the requirements for both marking schemes.
Northern Ireland has its own version of the UKCA mark which is a UKNI mark. The CE mark is also still valid in Northern Ireland.
At the time of publishing this the principal differences between CE and UKCA are administrative. This will remain the case as long as UK and EU legislation remain aligned.