PPE Regulations: Back to Brussels for the BSIF

During my recent return to Brussels, I attended a workshop set up to present and discuss how requirements will change when the new PPE Regulation is applied in two years’ time. The Regulations have been long awaited; the current Directive was finalised in 1989 and governs how only PPE which is suitable and adequate is produced to help keep people safe at work.

The new much anticipated update process has been ongoing for five years now but the final text was agreed in February this year after being pushed through the European Commission, Parliament and Council. It was then published in the EU Official Journal at the end of March and started its two year transition period on 21st April.

By bringing together a multiplicity of interested parties, the workshop provided the opportunity for manufacturers and suppliers of PPE from all over Europe to discuss and understand the changes.

Notified Bodies, the organisations appointed by each EU Member State to assess if products meet the necessary criteria to allow them to be offered for sale in Europe were also present. They represent the organisations which test and certify products designed to protect against medium and high risk occupational activities, while there are also obligations on what the Regulation refers to as a Notifying Authority, which every member state is required to have in place to control and administer its Notified Bodies.

In the UK the role of Notifying Authority is taken on by the Government within the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), who task the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to assess and monitor organisations that apply to become Notified Bodies.

The changes to come inevitably brought about a lot of discussion on the finer details of their exact meanings and how to apply them. Answers to the questions raised cannot be found in the text of the Regulation and will have to be dealt with in guidance which the EU Commission will provide to accompany it.

To ensure the interests of suppliers to the UK health and safety market are represented the BSIF will be part of the working group that will produce the guidance document, using the guidance for the current Directive as our starting point, and I will attend the first development meeting this summer.

The fact that it is a Regulation, rather than a Directive, means that it becomes European law on publication and will not require any additional legislation to transpose it into the national law of each member state. This means the Regulation should be applied in exactly the same way throughout the EU. In the UK some additional guidance is planned on the legal and practical aspects of applying the Regulation, and the BSIF will co-author this guidance with BIS.

So the workshop day was extremely useful, having promoted discussion between all the stakeholders affected by the changes, it resulted in a list of questions and areas requiring clarification that will be taken back to the Commission for some definitive answers. Now comes cascading of the same information to BSIF members.

We are arranging two regional seminars in the UK for all our members and I have arranged for representatives from BIS to also attend. Members will therefore have the opportunity to be heard directly, raising their comments and questions and developing the points that I will take to the guidance working group when I head back to Brussels again!