EA published a Communiqué dated 8^th of December 2021 related to the acceptance of conformity assessment results performed by an Approved Body (AB) in the framework of the UKCA marking for the issuance of certificates by a Notified Body (NB) under the CE Marking scheme.

In addition, EA has identified specific issues linked to the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) EU No 305/2011.

In the application of the CPR (Annex V § 2-3), the notified testing laboratory measures, examines, tests, calibrates, or otherwise determines the characteristics or performance of materials or construction products (the declaration of the performance of the essential characteristics of the construction product being made by the manufacturer which carries out the factory production control – see CPR Annex V § 1.4).

Consequently, the final report on results issued by the laboratory is a standard test report (with some reference to the CPR to use the report for CE marking) but with no further decision. The results originating from the UKCA marking scheme or from the EU CE marking system are identical to reports of single tests carried out according to international (and harmonized) technical standards by accredited laboratories based in the UK or the EU.

As a consequence, considering the EA Communiqué, there will be no specific activity done by the EU notified laboratory for the endorsement of the concerned tests delivered by a UK Approved Body (no real activity for assessment of the results and validation of the reports).

Questions

Considering the EA Communiqué, there is no equivalence between the UKCA Marking scheme and the CE Marking system. Thus CABs (NBs) cannot base their decisions and certifications in any way on the results and certificates originating from the UKCA Marking scheme.

Should it be concluded that the accredited NB laboratory for system 3 shall not reissue under its own accreditation a testing report containing the results delivered by the UK Approved Body (Laboratory) and not performed by its own?

Would it be acceptable that a customer transfers directly to the EU Notified Body for the CPR system 3 accredited test results provided by an EA MLA accredited laboratory, for inclusion in the accredited report to be issued by the EU Notified Body, without any formal subcontracting between the accredited EU Notified Body and the EA MLA accredited laboratory?

The answers can be downloaded here.