Construction Products Regulation guidance update

More changes to Construction Products Regulation sees publication of Guidance Note Version 3

SINCE 1 July 2013, under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), it has been mandatory for manufacturers to apply CE marking to any of their products covered by a harmonized European standard (hEN) or a European Technical Assessment (ETA). This represented a major change in the UK where, previously, the affixing of CE markings under the old Construction Products Directive (CPD) had been voluntary.

This, coupled with other changes introduced by the CPR, left the construction products industry facing its most significant change for a decade in the way in which its products were to be sold in Europe.

Interpreting the CPR has been the main function behind the ‘Guidance Note on the Construction Products Regulation’, which was first published in April 2013. Since then, the European Commission has introduced further clarifications and additions to the original Regulation, which resulted in an update to the original Guide. Now, following the introduction of Delegated Acts by the Commission in 2013 and 2014, the Guide has been further updated, with Version 3 published last month (October 2014).

The main changes introduced in Version 3 of the Guide cover:

• the new rules for placing Declarations of Performance (DoP) on websites
• the new template for a DoP and rules for its use by manufacturers
• an explanatory text on information to be included in a DoP
• the revised descriptions for the five levels of Assessment and Verification of Constancy of Performance (AVCP)
• updating the descriptions of the various types of Notified Body
• the notification that European Technical Assessments (ETAs) can now be regarded as the Assessment of Performance for a construction product.

Version 3 of the Guide continues its function of explaining the implications of the CPR for manufacturers, importers, distributors, specifiers, certification and test bodies, and regulatory/enforcement authorities. It has been prepared by the Construction Products Association (CPA), the British Board of Agrément (BBA), British Standards Institution (BSI) and Building Research Establishment (BRE), in consultation with the Trading Standards Institute (TSI).