Recommendation 74

HM Government Acknowledged

The Government shares the Committee’s views on the need for certainty on whether the UK will continue to recognise European harmonised standards. The Government acknowledges that the British Standards Institution (BSI) is the UK’s national standards body and the BSI a member of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC). Both the CEN and the CENELEC are officially recognised by the EU as responsible for developing and defining standards at European level. The BSI plays an active role on behalf of the UK in developing harmonised standards for construction products and will continue to do so as the UK delivers a smooth transition out of the EU. Our immediate priority is to ensure a smooth transition from the existing EU regulatory system for construction products to the new, UK based system. The government has committed to continue to recognise the EU’s CE marking for construction products until 1 January 2022. Going forward, the Government will have the flexibility to implement different standards for what will become ‘designated’ construction products in Great Britain, but we have no current plans to review these standards at this time. The Construction Products Standards Committee will be comprised of independent experts and it will advise the Secretary of State on whether voluntary industry standards for construction products should also become UK regulatory standards, a role currently undertaken by the European Commission