In Great Britain and in Northern Ireland many types of electrical and electronic equipment (
EEE) are regulated to control the levels of certain hazardous substances and chemicals they contain, with the aim of protecting human and animal health.
All products in scope must:
have supporting technical documentation (often referred to as a technical file) to demonstrate compliance
have a Declaration of Conformity
be labelled with the required information
display the appropriate conformity marking for the GB and/ or NI markets as appropriate
In Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012 (as amended) are the underpinning legislation. However, there are differences in how they apply in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as explained below.
The regulations do not apply to:
products for military use
a piece of equipment designed for and installed in another type of equipment which can only function within that product, for example a built-in satellite navigation system installed into cars, boats or aeroplanes
filament bulbs apart from LED filament bulbs, to which the regulations do apply
equipment designed to be sent into space
large-scale stationary industrial tools
transport for persons or goods, excluding electric 2 wheeled vehicles which are not type-approved
off-road mobile machinery for professional use only
equipment designed only for research and development use and only available via business to business (B2B)
recovery and recycling targets
Responsibility for enforcing the regulations is shared by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).
The End-of-life Vehicles Regulations 2003 (as amended) and the End-of-life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005 (as amended) are the underpinning legislation.
What is covered
The regulations cover all cars (with up to 9 seats) and small vans (of up to 3.5 tonnes), including components made for them. End-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are motor vehicles categorised as waste, generally due to age or accident.
Extent of obligation
UK market is responsible for compliance. (Private individuals importing vehicles are not liable.)