Member Query: Dual (UKCA and CE) Declarations of Conformity

We have had a proposal from a vendor to provide a combined Declaration of Conformities (DOC) to meet GB (UKCA) and EU (CE) requirements, essentially providing one document instead of two. 

The BRC asked members how they approach dual DOCs.

Answer One

"As we understand it, you cannot provide a combined DOC declaring compliance to both UKCA and CE. 

There must be a clear declaration of compliance to CE and another for UKCA compliance. 

You can however provide one document with the two DOCs on separate pages" 

Answer Two

"If the EC won't accept dual-energy labelling on product packaging I would struggle to see EU member state enforcement authorities accepting dual declarations.

For a CE DoP/DoCs any data that is shown which is linked to regulatory controls in the UK, North American, Middle East, China etc are all irrelevant to the CE declaration e.g. UK legal entity name and address vs EU based legal entity details.  Hence, why it is believed to combine such references would bring unwanted enforcement scrutiny and challenges.

In summary better to keep UKCA declarations distinct and separate to CE declarations, even if 2 English versions are required i.e. EN UKCA version for GB market and EN CE version for ROI market"

For ease, yes I ensure all DOC’s are one document. But, within that document is one page for the UK authorities and one page for the EU authorities.

 Information which is duplicated:

• Retailer name
• Supplier name and address
• Factory name and address
• Style specific information (Style number description etc)
• Harmonised standard used – often the same for UK and EU
• Supplier signature, job title, place of issue and date

Information which is unique to each DOC:

• Retailer address. Our UK legal entity address is on our UK DOC and our EU legal entity address is on our EU DOC.
• References to UK legislation or EU legislation as applicable.

I appreciate that some product types the UK may still use and refer to the EU legislation, however, I have drafted all templates to be the same for uniformity.

Although the EU DoC and the GB DoC follow the same format the GB & EU legislation referenced are clearly different.

There would also be a difference in Authorised Representative (AR).

If the manufacturer is in GB so no need for a GB AR, then for EU there would have to be an AR stated.

Similarly, if the manufacturer is outside of EU/GB they would have to list the GB AR and the EU AR.

We would therefore expect two different DoC’s to be created, one for each region naming the AR when appropriate which is consistent with both the EU and GB guidance. That way the documents are clear and is unlikely to be challenged by any market surveillance authority in GB or EU.