Schedule 4: Use of relevant international standards
- Schedule 4 amends provisions regarding designation (and similar selection) of standards in certain product legislation. Paragraphs 1 and 3-24 would amend the legislation to which they relate in the following ways:
- The amendments add international standardising bodies to the bodies whose standards may be designated under the relevant legislation (sub-paragraph (a));
- Where the legislation requires the Secretary of State have regard to consistency with other standards before designating a standard, the amendments provide that regard should also be had to consistency with international standards which are considered to be relevant (generally sub-paragraph (c), but also sub-paragraph (b) of paragraphs 6, 20 and 22);
- For the purposes of these amendments, the term international standardising body is to be interpreted consistently with the WTO Agreement on TBT (generally sub-paragraph (b), but sub-paragraph (c) of paragraphs 6, 20 and 22). This ensures that relevant international standards within the TCA definition can be designated, and allows designation of other standards meeting the broader WTO definition if the former are ineffective or inappropriate.
- Paragraph 2 adds standards approved by international standardising bodies to the standards which can be published in order to give rise to a presumption of conformity and taken into account when assessing a product’s safety, reflecting regulation 6 of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, which it amends.
- Schedule 4 amends legislation covering certain products including toys, radio equipment, and personal protective equipment. The amended legislation will give the Secretary of State the option to designate a standard approved by an international standardising body, for presumption of conformity with the requirements set in the relevant regulations. This will mean that, if an international standard is designated for legislation relating to toys for example, manufacturers can produce toys to the relevant international standard and they will have a rebuttable presumption of conformity with the corresponding requirements in the regulation.
- The legislation amended under Schedule 4 and the amendments, will be limited in extent or application to England and Wales and Scotland, or will not have relevance to Northern Ireland.
