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Machinery safety legislation: call for evidence

Published 28 July 2025

The UK’s Machinery Regulations

1) The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 implemented the EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC in the UK. The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 preserved these Regulations and enabled them to be amended so as to continue to function effectively after the UK left the EU.

Read guidance on the Regulations.

2) Under current UK legislation, businesses who comply with specific requirements of the EU’s Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and mark the machinery with the CE marking may continue to place these products on the market in Great Britain (GB). Applying to 21 different regulations, this ‘CE recognition’ is estimated to save businesses around 64m per year, ^{[footnote 1]} by eliminating duplicative conformity testing and approval costs.

3) We are reviewing the UK’s Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, to ensure they support economic growth and facilitate the delivery of safe machinery products for consumers and workers. We are also committed to reducing possible trade friction and simplifying cross-border transactions for suppliers, where it is the interest of our businesses and consumers.

4) The EU has also reviewed its Machinery legislation, with substantive changes applying for Member States from January 2027. Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland (NI) applies certain EU product regulations, including the new Machinery Regulation, in order to facilitate NI’s dual access to the UK internal market and EU Single Market.

5) The continued recognition of CE-marked machinery products in GB could complement the Windsor Framework arrangements by helping to smooth the flow of trade within the UK internal market. It would simplify processes for NI supply chains, supporting reduced compliance costs for business.

6) The UK’s ability to set its own rules presents a strategic opportunity to tailor product safety and conformity assessment frameworks to our domestic priorities. We need to ensure that the UK’s machinery legislation supports crucial sectors, such as advanced manufacturing, ensuring that regulation is pragmatic, proportionate, and globally competitive. The Government aims to make sure that whatever approach is taken allows the UK to respond flexibly to global market developments, while protecting consumers and workers and promoting growth.

Changes to machinery legislation in the European Union

7) In 2023, the EU published the new Machinery Regulation 2023/1230, following a review of the current Directive. Entry into force of the new Regulation took place in July 2023, with an application date of January 2027, at which point the old Directive will be repealed and the new Regulation will take effect.

8) According to the EU, the key objective of the new Regulation is to clarify and future-proof legislation in this area, bringing specifications up to the current state of the art. Whilst some requirements remain the same, the new Regulation introduces some key changes to machinery legislation in the EU which includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Alignment to New Legislative Framework (NLF) – the EU has aligned the Machinery Regulation to NLF legislation, therefore introducing obligations on importers and distributors that did not previously apply to machinery products.
• Move towards paperless compliance – manufacturers can provide digital documentation rather than paper format, although paper formats must be provided if requested.
• Common specifications – the EU can create common specifications, in the absence of a harmonised standard, to provide presumption of conformity to the essential health and safety requirements in the Regulation.
• Conformity assessment – the EU has introduced new requirements, with a list of products that now require mandatory third-party conformity assessment due to their deemed risk level.
• Changes to essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs) – there are a number of changes to the EHSRs, such as new requirements related to software and machines with self-evolving behaviours.

9) The UK Government is giving due consideration to the EU’s reforms of Machinery legislation. Many of our own objectives for product safety reform also feature in the EU’s new Machinery Regulation, such as considerations around new and modern technologies, a move to paperless documentation and obligations on all actors in the supply chain.

10) From a trade perspective, continuing to recognise EU product requirements would reduce friction for UK manufacturers selling into the EU and for those seeking to import products into GB. Taking a similar approach to the EU’s Machinery Regulation would also mean the rules for placing a product on the market in GB are aligned with those which apply to products in NI.

11) However, we recognise that creating consistency with the new EU Machinery Regulation may have unintended impacts, and so we wish to build on our understanding on those through this Call for Evidence.

Consulting under the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 and the Call for Evidence

12) Any changes to machinery legislation would be made using the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025. As such, in line with the legal requirement, we are consulting on the approach for GB via a Call for Evidence.

13) This Call for Evidence will build an evidence base on the aforementioned changes to machinery legislation and to help us understand:

a. the potential benefits and costs of such changes UK wide to our businesses and consumers

b. the potential benefits and costs of continuing recognition of EU machinery requirements, including CE marking

14) In particular, we are keen to hear views on the following themes:

• The introduction of essential health and safety requirements relating to new and emerging technologies.
• The use of common specifications as a new means of showing conformity.
• The introduction of importer and distributors requirements.
• The introduction of third-party conformity assessment for some products.
• Any other key topic within the legislation that should be considered in detail.

15) We are looking to hear from all interested parties, including, but not limited to:

• manufacturers
• authorised representatives
• importers/distributors
• trade associations
• conformity assessment bodies
• consumers
• workers
• market surveillance and enforcement authorities
• charities

16) How to respond: Please send all responses to machinery@businessandtrade.gov.uk by 11:59pm on 20 October 2025 when the Call for Evidence will close.

Question 1: What issues should be considered if the UK were to continue its recognition of new EU product requirements for machinery, including the CE marking?

• What practicalities or wider issues might continued recognition of EU product requirements for machinery involve?
• What practicalities (including additional costs or cost savings) might this involve for the responsible person?
• Overall, would you be in favour of continued recognition of the EU’s machinery requirements?
• What would you see as the benefits of this approach?
• What would be the result if we were not to continue recognising EU product requirements in the new Machinery Regulation across the UK?

Question 2: What issues should be considered if the Government was to implement the same approach to the EU’s Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 across the whole of the UK?

• What practicalities or wider issues might these new machinery safety measures involve?
• What practicalities might this involve for economic operators and traders?
• What additional costs or cost savings would be incurred from these changes, for example the introduction of additional conformity assessment requirements?
• Overall, would you be in favour of legislation to introduce similar measures?
• What would you see as the benefits of introducing the same approach?
• What would be the result if we were not to introduce the same legislation across the UK?

Footnote

1. Read the Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment) Regulations 2024 Impact Assessment. The regulations in scope of this legislation include: ATEX, Electromagnetic compatibility, Lifts, Electrical equipment, Pressure Equipment, Pyrotechnics, Recreational crafts, Radio equipment, Simple pressure vessels, Toys, Aerosol dispensers, Gas appliances, Machinery, Noise emissions, Personal protective equipment, Measuring instruments, Non-automatic weighing instruments, Measuring container bottles, RoHS, Explosives, and Eco-design. Impacts are reported in 2023 prices. ↩