Uncertainty and shortage of testing capacity leaves UK in limbo
One of the UK’s largest certification bodies has said it has been unable to start planning for sweeping changes to construction product testing because the government has not explained how the new rules will work.
British Board of Agrement (BBA) chief executive Hardy Giesler said the testing sector is still awaiting a government decision on whether products can only be tested in the UK or can be tested abroad under new rules set to come into force on 1 January next year.
The new UK-only certification system, known as the UKCA marking, will replace the Europe-wide CE marking which has been used for more than 30 years to certify products as legal to sell on the UK market.
The changes, which the government has said will enable the UK to “take back control of our own product regulations”, are causing increasing concern across the construction industry because of the extent of new testing that will need to be carried out.
A shortage of testing capacity for some products including glass and radiators could mean 150,000 new homes are delayed because materials will be unavailable on the UK market, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has warned.
Last month the business department said the industry had had “two years to adapt to these changes and it is important we don’t delay implementation any further”.
But Giesler told Building Design that the BBA has not been able to respond to the changes because they have not been finalised.
He said: “If the decision today is that all new tests need to be sourced in the UK, and this new way of working goes live on 1 January next year, we will definitely have an issue, quite a significant issue.
“我们和业内其他公司一样担心。产品需要测试。这不是你可以急着做的事情。
“There are defined tests – and some of them take months to do. There are some tests we do that take almost a year to complete.
“We are very, very concerned about the timescale. We need an answer very, very soon and – even if we get an answer very soon – it is highly likely we will need some kind of transition period or an extension to the deadline that currently exists.”
Part of the problem is that testing facilities are commercial operations which will not invest in expanding capacity unless there is a clear marketplace, according to Construction Product Association chief executive Peter Caplehorn.
But Giesler said the BBA does not have access to that level of market intelligence because testing has in the past been sourced across Europe: “It’s difficult to plan for testing when test providers don’t know what demand there will be and whether there will be sufficient demand to warrant an investment in the necessary equipment and facilities to test that product.”
对于某些很少进行的测试，整个欧洲只有少数几个设施。吉斯勒说，这些中心可能不会被英国的商业实体复制，政府需要允许在其他国家进行这些测试。他补充说，订购和校准新的测试设备本身就是一个漫长的过程，可能需要一年时间。
The Building Safety Bill, which is currently on its way through the House of Lords, is also likely to dramatically increase the need for testing of construction products that could further strain capacity, according to Giesler.
CLC将在接下来的几周内会见英国建筑部长李•罗利(Lee Rowley)，讨论该问题的解决方案。
Andy Mitchell, the group’s co-chair, toldBuilding magazine last weekthat “some things will have to change if we are to not have significant problems at the end of this year.
He added that there “simply isn’t enough time to put in place sufficient certification and testing capability in the UK as things stand”.
But the meeting, originally requested in November, took the CLC more than two months to secure – and it is understood that an actual date has yet to be set.
Caplehorn是CLC产品可用性工作组的成员，他说政府最初并不理解引入一个新的认证体系的影响。
He said: “There were a number of misconceptions about how the various mechanisms of all this stuff works and I think possibly not too much knowledge about how much capacity existed on home territory.
“It has taken a long time to put all the pieces together and build the consensus that action needs to be taken. And it’s slightly disappointing that it’s taken that long because industry has suffered to some degree – but the whole sector will suffer considerably more if we don’t get these solutions over the line.”
在这之后，没有UKCA标志的产品在英国市场将是非法的，这一截止日期最初定于今年1月1日，但在去年8月被延长了12个月。
Several contractors have voiced concerns that there will still not be enough time, with Mace chief executive Mark Reynolds and Costain boss Alex Vaughan both predicting that the deadline will need to be pushed back again.
No comments yet