U.K. Amended List of Standards for Electrical Equipment

The Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 – S.I. 2019/696 introduced designated standards as the standards giving presumption of conformity to the essential requirements included in U.K. legislation.

A designated standard is a technical specification that may be recognized by the government in part or in full by publishing the reference on GOV.UK. Depending on the product, it can be a standard adopted by any of the following recognized standardization bodies:

• British Standards Institution (BSI).
• European Committee for Standardization (CEN).
• European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec).
• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
• International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Designated standards will be prefixed “BS,” “EN,” “EN ISO” or “EN IEC.” For example: EN 71-1:2014+A1:2018.

Latest update

On Jan. 1, 2021, the government published the lists of designated standards and created a similar document to EU Official Journal EU. In this year and a half, the government has continued to update these lists to maintain alignment with the European harmonized standards and their publication in the EU OJ.

The government has recently updated the list of designated standards that can be used by manufacturers in order to assess and declare conformity to the regulation requirements of e Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1101). The publication on GOV.UK website grants presumption of conformity with the essential requirements of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1101). Please be aware that it is an amendment and not the complete list.

Standards used for electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits in support of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1101) have been amended, and the changes can be seen in Annex 1 of Publication 0061/22.

Official sources

Designated standards — low voltage:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/designated-standards-low-voltage

Notice of publication 0061/22 of 9 August 2022:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1096713/ds-0061-22-low-voltage-equipment-notice.pdf

How to achieve conformity

The designated standards listed in the Notice 0061/22 can be used to provide a presumption of conformity with the essential requirements of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016. In order to comply with the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016, manufacturers can choose whether or not to apply the designated standards or parts thereof. However, if manufacturers choose not to apply the designated standard, they need, based on their own risk assessment, to demonstrate that the products conform with essential requirements by other means of their own choosing (e.g., by means of any existing technical specifications, including all other available standards). Designated standards are not mandatory, but they can simplify the process of meeting the essential requirements set by legislation. For this reason, when U.K. designated standards exist, they are commonly used by manufacturers.