Conformity Assessment (Mutual Recognition Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

Lord Lennie Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2022 Grand Committee

In conclusion, we introduce these regulations to give effect to provisions which keep our barriers to trade with Switzerland low. As I said, we do this while preserving our robust protections for product safety as a responsible Government. This SI will provide certainty on the UK’s approach to recognising and designating CABs for certain products under the MRA. I therefore commend these regulations to the House.

[Lord Lennie (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for setting out the details of the regulations for us. I note that we have lost our one Back-Bencher, so it is now a two-person show, but there we go.

This instrument makes provision to give effect to a mutual recognition agreement—an MRA—between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Swiss Confederation. It amends earlier regulations. An agreement between the UK and the Swiss Confederation came into force on 1 September 2021 and contains the conditions under which each country will accept conformity results from the other. The five areas it covers are: electrical equipment; measuring instruments; radio equipment; transportable pressure equipment; and noise emitting equipment for use outdoors. The MRA for these is a mutual testing arrangement between Switzerland and Great Britain, but is there any expectation that the sectors covered by this MRA will be expanded in the future? The Minister referred to 12 areas and we have five with us. Are the other seven going to be covered by the regulation at some point in the future?

Equally, the MRA sets out how relevant goods can be tested—Switzerland against UK regulations and UK against Swiss regulations. Are there any notable divergences or are they simply technical adjustments between one and the other? The UK has MRAs with several countries agreed as part of arrangements made under the UK’s trade continuity programme. To this extent, the assessment is the same as that performed to assess conformity with requirements in third countries. This may reduce the need to duplicate conformity assessment. This will provide continuity. It will also have the benefit of saving time for manufacturers, with products being able to be placed on the market more quickly than if they were required to undergo a separate test of conformity in the UK as well as in Switzerland before they arrive.

The instrument implements the Swiss MRA in a similar way, by amending Schedule 1 to the 2021 regulations so that it includes all the domestic regulations which the UK may recognise for Swiss CABs to test against under the Swiss MRA. Since 1 January 2021, the UK and Switzerland have granted temporary bilateral access to goods conformity, assessed against each other’s regulations. Switzerland will no longer apply these temporary measures for new conformity assessment procedures carried out by bodies based in the UK after 31 December 2022. Under reciprocal arrangements set out in the Swiss MRA, conformity assessment procedures issued before this date will still be recognised for goods placed on the market in 2023, ensuring continuity of trade between the parties.

When the Swiss MRA enters into force in 2023, conformity assessment bodies will be permitted to issue new approvals for conformity assessment procedures once they are designated under the agreement. The Swiss MRA specifies the products and sectors to which it applies, such as radio equipment. The amended 2021 regulations also set the power of the Secretary of State to designate UK CABs for the purpose of assessing against Swiss requirements. The instrument amends Schedule 2 to the 2021 regulations to include product sectors of the Swiss MRA.

The main direct impact for business associated with this new legislation will be a one-off familiarisation cost, at a central estimate of £2,300. More specifically, as of 11 October this instrument would have familiarisation impacts on only around 300 affected businesses which are involved in the manufacture and sale of the products within the scope of the instrument, and which trade those products with Switzerland but not the EU. The familiarisation costs should presumably be balanced out by the reduced bureaucracy in having to meet a single assessment conformity. Have the Government made any assessment of the value of exports made by the 300 UK businesses to Switzerland that would be required to break even in this regard?