Two new European Directives in the UK – Directive 2013/29/EU which harmonises the obligations of economic operators and Directive 2014/58/EU which introduces new requirements to improve the traceability of pyrotechnic articles.
The draft regulations are included in the consultation document which may be viewed on the BIS website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pyrotechnic-articles-safety-regulations-2015-implementation-of-eu-directives
If you wish to make comments the closing date of this consultation is Thursday 22nd January 2015. There is a short summary below.
Christine Knox – Assistant Director
What is this consultation about?
The consultation is about how the UK implements two new EU Directives on pyrotechnic articles – which include fireworks.
As the Directives have already been made, we can’t influence their contents. But we do want to get the views of stakeholders on how we are implementing those Directives. We have set out a number of specific questions on which we are asking for responses.
We plan to get rid of the old pyrotechnic regulations (Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations 2010) and replace them with a new set of regulations. A draft of the new regulations is in the consultation document.
Who will be interested in it?
This consultation will be relevant to:
manufacturers, importers and distributors of pyrotechnic articles;
bodies involved in the conformity assessment of pyrotechnic articles (currently there are no such bodies in the UK); and enforcement authorities with responsibilities for pyrotechnic articles such as trading standards and the Health and Safety Executive
What are the main changes?
There will be new labelling requirements for manufacturers and importers and, along with distributors, they will also have to keep records of the registration number of articles, who they have sold pyrotechnic articles to and who has supplied them, for 10 years. They will also have new obligations to take action over unsafe articles that they have put on the market.