BSIF in Action: BSIF Test and Certification Association

Notified Bodies are the organisations that are accredited by each EU Member State as competent to assess whether products meet the criteria necessary for those products to be offered for sale within the EU. In our industry, Notified Bodies determine whether products meet the safety requirements of the PPE Directive and if they do, the Body awards the CE mark for that product. Remember, it is illegal to offer any item of PPE for sale within Europe without a CE mark.

Furthermore, Notified Bodies carry out or arrange testing of products to EN Standards, and award an EC Type Examination Certificate for products that pass. This is the certification we look for to confirm that an item of safety equipment is approved to a relevant EN standard.

 

As part of the requirements of their UKAS accreditation, UK Notified Bodies agree to meet regularly to co-operate and share best practice. The BSIF facilitates this within its Test and Certification Association, which meets four times a year to review and discuss reports from the European groups that set requirements, to raise issues around standards and test methods, and to liaise as a body with delegates who also attend from UKAS, the UK body who accredit their activities, and also from BIS, the UK Government Department for Business Innovation and Skills who control Notified Bodies in the UK.

At their last meeting members discussed their reaction to the proposed revision of the PPE Directive which, among many other changes, will limit the validity of EC Type Certificates to 5 years. They also reviewed the progress of a new approach in UKAS accreditation procedures, looked for a solution to the inability to approve product to EN795 because of an on-going legal challenge to the standard, made proposals to BIS on reports that Market Surveillance authorities are not applying requirements uniformly throughout the EU on the need for certification to the ‘latest version’ of a standard, and continued to bring pressure to bear over inappropriate dual certification for firefighting garments.

The BSIF Test and Certification Association has every single UK Notified Body that has PPE within its scope as a member and so represents the interests of this part of our industry and is the go-to point for any approval issues.