Ecodesign February update
14 February 2019
Following a meeting with BEIS here is an update on Ecodesign including Breixit-related comments:
- The statutory instrument to adapt Ecodesign measures for UK Law in the event of a No Deal is in the final stages of the legislative process, and is expected to be formally agreed. This will keep the major elements of the Directive.
- Consultation forums for ongoing studies or parts of the workplan are expected as follows for 2019
- Note that UK participation in these after Brexit is uncertain (though we would expect to have at least observer status)
- As these will come into force after the 29th March, the UK is not obliged to enact any new measures. There will need to be a full UK consultation on whether these are adopted. BEIS say that are not ruling out divergence, though given the statements made in the Clean Growth Strategy, they have suggested any divergence would be to make the measures more ambitious.
- Q2 – taps and showers
- Q3 – batteries, compressors, air conditioners, local space heaters
- Q4 – space and water heaters.
- The state of market surveillance and cooperation between UK and other European enforcement bodies after Brexit (with a deal or without) is uncertain. OPSS is reviewing market surveillance needs including the option of adding more resource.
- Regarding the new EPREL database for products requiring energy labelling, under a No Deal UK companies that do not supply products into the EU will not be required to enter data on products placed on the market before 1 January 2019 as the final date for compliance is July 2019 (NB compliance for new products, placed on the market since 1 January 2019, is required from 1st April 2019). Under a Deal they would be required to do so for the transition period, but this could mean that companies have to invest a lot of time during the transition period entering data that will be in use on the database for less than 2 years. Under the proposed withdrawal agreement UK Government would also lose access to the database itself. BEIS agreed to review this situation and feed back to industry.
- The research stage on whether the UK needs its own label generator tool after Brexit is now complete. BEIS findings have suggested that they will need to create UK label generator tool primarily for smaller businesses. They acknowledged this is not a priority area of concern for most businesses.
