The European Timber Regulation (EUTR) and Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) no longer apply in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales).
The Timber and Timber Products Placing on the Market Regulations (UKTR) and UK FLEGT Regulations apply in Great Britain from 1 January 2021 but the requirements remain the same as under EUTR.
How to comply
Traders must keep records of who they buy timber or timber products from, and any traders they sell them to.
Operators must not place illegally harvested timber on the GB market and to avoid doing so must first apply a due diligence system, under which they:
- gather information on timber, including its species, quantity, supplier, country of harvest and compliance with applicable legislation
- assess the risk of timber being illegal, applying set criteria in the regulations
- mitigate any identified risk to negligible, by obtaining additional information or taking further steps to verify legality
All species in composites must be considered separately, but where they are a mix of virgin and recycled timbers, only the former need to be assessed.
For further information visit the Office for Product Safety and Standards here