Draft Supply of Machinery (Safety) (Amendment etc.) and the EU Machinery Regulation (Enforcement etc. in Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026

Carla Lockhart Excerpts

Tuesday 30th June 2026 General Committees

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

I am deeply concerned that the regulations will further entrench Northern Ireland’s competitive disadvantage in comparison with GB. Why should machinery entering Northern Ireland from the EU be saddled with even more red tape, while GB is free of such regulations? This is about fairness. If a transaction is straightforward in Birmingham or Glasgow, it should be straightforward in Banbridge or Belfast.

Businesses in Upper Bann are constantly expected to navigate complex rules, despite having no meaningful democratic say over them. Our businesses are already weighed down by the bureaucracy of the Windsor framework, which has always been a constitutional compromise. Put simply, it is good for the EU but bad for Northern Ireland. This time last year, the Federation of Small Businesses in Northern Ireland warned that, shockingly, more than one third of businesses it surveyed had stopped trading with GB altogether. The compliance burdens had already become too great to bear. The new regulations only add insult to injury and cause further problems.

On paper, the statutory instrument is supposed to avoid

“a regulatory cliff edge where products meeting the new EU requirements will not be accepted in GB without the Government changing its machinery legislation.”

In reality, the new measures may force GB suppliers to conclude that serving Northern Ireland is just too much hassle. In truth, the paperwork is not worth the profit. Machinery dealers, manufacturers and contractors depend on GB supply chains.

Just a number of weeks ago, an article was written after the Balmoral show, the largest agricultural show in Northern Ireland, in which the company Grassmen highlighted just how disastrous the situation is, including the company’s problems bringing from GB to Northern Ireland a tractor that had been at another show. It is absolutely ludicrous and causes major problems for our businesses.

The new rules will cause more delay, more cost and more uncertainty. Competitiveness is being undermined and businesses are struggling to get the equipment they need. The issue is bigger than machinery: this is about sovereignty, democracy and economic common sense. Companies in Northern Ireland should be focused on growing their businesses, not fighting their way through an ever-expanding maze of red tape.

A few points in the explanatory memorandum are quite telling, including paragraph 5.3, which says:

“This SI applies to both workplace machinery and consumer products, including excavators, cranes, and leaf blowers.”

That lays bare the scope and extent of the SI, which will now impact not only workplace machinery but consumer products, even though we were always told that consumer products would be protected.

Paragraph 5.7 says:

“The Government has also announced that similar measures to those taking effect in Northern Ireland will be introduced in Great Britain as soon as parliamentary time allows.”

When will that be? We have absolutely no idea. Meanwhile, the GB-Northern Ireland mismatch will continue. Given that the Minister used the words “in due course”, there certainly does not seem to be any Government push to move on with the measures, which are not right in the first place. That shows the disdain for Northern Ireland and the impact of the regulations on us.

The last sentence of paragraph 5.9 of the explanatory memorandum says:

“Under the Windsor Framework, the EU Regulation will apply directly to NI”,

which again highlights that Northern Ireland is put at a disadvantage under the Windsor framework. The memorandum also talks about how the instrument will improve the “cliff edge” situation, but actually it only piles on more regulations, so it does not do what the Government claim. The SI is bad for business in Northern Ireland, so I ask the Government to engage with the businesses that are impacted by the situation, and to start to make the change that is needed by getting rid of the Windsor framework and putting Northern Ireland on a par with GB.