Business Brexit Taskforce
06 December 2021
Andrew Willman recently represented BEAMA at the latest Brexit Business Taskforce meeting, chaired by Lord Frost, Cabinet Office Minister and attended by Paul Scully, BEIS Minster responsible for OPSS and Michael Ellis, Paymaster-General.
Other business organisations represented were CBI, FSB, BCC, IoD, MakeUK, and BEAMA’s partner trade associations GAMBICA, EAMA, AMDEA and CPA. The main focus of the meeting was on Product Regulatory Reform.
The key messages conveyed by Andrew on behalf of BEAMA members were that:
- As reflected in the recent BEIS/OPSS Product Safety Review, the structure of UK Product regulation, with compliance and conformity linked to international industry standards, is fit for purpose and should not be changed;
- UK manufacturers overwhelmingly sought certainty and stability and while any future potential divergence from current regulations would be carefully assessed, any divergence from EU regulatory standards would create significant business problems;
- The opportunity for the UK is to become the global leader in thorough market surveillance and effective enforcement but this will require a focus on properly resourcing both OPSS and Trading Standards;
- UK manufacturers are very happy to comply with robust product regulations but only if they can see that these are enforced and that they don’t face unfair competition from unsafe and non-compliant products freely circulating on the UK market.
There was also further discussion on the importance of providing proper guidance and support around UKCA marking, along with the challenges particularly for construction products and the potential benefits of e-labelling of products.
