Construction Fixings

With UK Building Safety Minister Rushanara Ali announcing in a statement to parliament, in September, plans to halt the scrappage of CE Marking, Chris Middleton, general manager at the Construction Fixings Association (CFA), outlines why the extension will benefit the whole of the UK construction industry.

UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) Marking came into effect on the 1^st January 2021, however it became clear very quickly that it was impossible to facilitate the change over from CE Marking in this timeframe. Therefore the deadline was increased to January 2023 and then June 2025. In September, the UK government announced the continued acceptance of CE Marking past 30^th June 2025 deadline.

Acceptance of CE Marking going forward is welcomed across the whole of the construction products industry. CE Marking has become not just a European conformity mark but a mark that’s accepted globally. For the UK to compete in our own market, and in export markets, we need to achieve and exceed these standards to meet current and future construction standards with regards to performance, sustainability and environmental credentials.

At the CFA we represent the leading fixing manufacturers, with our full members including EJOT, fischer, Hilti, Rawlplug, Simpson Strong-Tie, Spit and Würth – all international companies that spend millions of pounds complying with European and international standards. At a time when we are looking to the construction industry to boost the UK economy, it seems ridiculous to inflict extra costs on the sector when in reality it does nothing to improve the quality of the product.

The continued use of CE Marking will give reassurance to engineers and designers with regards to concrete anchors, concrete screws and
self-drilling and self-tapping fasteners, as well as systems having gained the European Technical Assessments’ (ETAs) 3^rd party certification and the associated CE conformity mark.

ETAs and CE Marking provides consistency of technical information and conformity, when used on existing, current and certainly for future projects. The valuable information provides engineers, consultants, designers, OEMs and installation specialists the confidence in the data and calculations produced from these documents. ETAs are essential in providing technical performance data to meet the higher demands of the Building Safety Act and the Building Safety regulator.

Products that gained the UKTA voluntary assessment will also be compliant and run hand in hand with the ETAs documentation. Manufacturers who only hold a UKTA for their products will also be accepted with the associated UKCA conformity mark, as the performance data of both documents are derived from the same EOTA European Assessment Document (EAD). 

At the CFA we welcome the acceptance of the CE Marking extension and trust common sense will prevail.