Business secretary said yesterday existing mark will stay in place until 2025 but approval for industry rests with DLUHC

The government department in charge of construction products will decide shortly whether a decision by Grant Shapps to carry on using the CE mark for another two years will apply to the sector as well.

Yesterday the business secretary said the existing CE mark, which was due to be replaced by the new UKCA mark from next January, will still be in use until the beginning of 2025.

The new regime, which had already been postponed for 12 months, will eventually require all new or updated construction products to be tested in UK facilities in order to be legally sold on the UK market and will replace the current CE mark, introduced in 1985.

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Business secretary Grant Shapps yesterday said the CE mark will stay in force until the beginning of 2025. It was supposed to have been replaced completely next month by a new UK mark called UKCA

But it has been dogged by worries that the UK does not have enough capacity for certain products to be tested and yesterday’s announcement by Shapps brought an initial wave of relief among businesses.

After the announcement, one chief executive of a major contractor told ɫTV: “Common sense has prevailed. The focus must be on where value can be added through a change, rather than a focus on a wholesale change.”

But the final say on whether the CE mark can still be used on construction products now rests with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

A spokesperson confirmed to ɫTV: “DLUHC is considering its approach in relation to CE marking of construction products.”

No timetable has been given for when it will announce its decision but it will have to be before 1 January next year – given that is the deadline for the new UKCA mark to come into force.

Construction Products Association chief executive Peter Caplehorn told ɫTV “it would be good” if it DLUHC’s decision followed that of the business department.

He added the issue of testing capacity around products such as glass, sealants and radiators had not gone away.

“Not all products can be tested in the UK […] none of that has been addressed,” said Caplehorn. “We have been working on this now for two and a half years [and] it has been immensely frustrating.”

BEIS’ announcement, which covers a range of product sectors including electronics and lift manufacturers, was welcomed by many including the government’s chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, who called Shapps’ intervention “very sensible” and said the UK should “accept EU-approved goods in most areas for a long time to come”.

Others have used the decision to call for the entire UKCA initiative to be ditched altogether. One boss told ɫTV: “If a company is making products for the UK and exporting them here, then it is doubling their bureaucracy because they’re making products for the CE mark market and exactly the same product for a UKCA market. It’s madness. I’m struggling to see what the benefit is for the UK. Prices will just go up.”