Legislation.gov.uk records that the Supply of Machinery (Safety) (Amendment etc.) and the EU Machinery Regulation (Enforcement etc. in Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026 were made on 22 July 2026 and come into force on 20 January 2027. Signed by Jonathan Reynolds for the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the instrument uses powers in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 to reset how machinery rules operate across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The preamble states that the Secretary of State consulted persons considered appropriate, had regard to social, environmental and economic effects for the relevant provisions, and secured approval from both Houses of Parliament. In policy terms, the instrument addresses a single legal change: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, the EU Machinery Regulation, will apply directly in Northern Ireland from 20 January 2027, while Great Britain remains under a domestic regime derived from the 2008 machinery rules.
In Great Britain, the immediate change is structural rather than wholesale replacement. The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 are amended so that they apply only in England and Wales and Scotland, and a series of Northern Ireland references are removed as redundant. The Explanatory Note on legislation.gov.uk says the purpose is to keep a route open for machinery products that meet the EU Machinery Regulation to be placed on the market in Great Britain. That matters for manufacturers, importers and authorised representatives selling across more than one UK territory, because the instrument preserves a legal route from EU-based compliance work to access to the GB market.
The substituted regulations 12A and 12B are the technical centre of the GB changes. They treat specified GB requirements as met where the responsible person has ensured that machinery satisfies the essential health and safety requirements in Annex III to Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, has completed the relevant Article 25 conformity assessment procedure, and has prepared technical documentation under Annex IV in English or translated into English and kept it available to enforcement authorities on request for at least 10 years. For machinery placed on the market or put into service under regulation 12A, the responsible person must also have an EU declaration of conformity drawn up in accordance with Article 21, prepared in or translated into English, kept available to enforcement authorities on request for 10 years, and supplied with the machinery or made accessible through an internet address or machine-readable code for the same period. The instrument also requires the Article 10 information, English instructions for use, and CE marking under Article 24. For partly completed machinery, parallel conditions apply around Annex IV Part B documentation, an EU declaration of incorporation under Article 22, and assembly instructions meeting Annex XI.
The effect is not limited to recognising EU paperwork. Where the regulation 12A conditions are met, a series of existing GB provisions are treated as satisfied, modified, or disapplied. Regulation 12B creates a similar deeming route for other GB compliance provisions, with changes that read references across to EU standards, EU type-examination certificates and the relevant annexes in the EU Regulation. Regulation 12C then deals with qualifying Northern Ireland goods. It provides that the remaining Part 3 requirements of the 2008 regime are treated as met where the product satisfies the Article 10 or Article 11 requirements as they apply in Northern Ireland, is a qualifying Northern Ireland good, and is accompanied by the name and address of the responsible person or that person's authorised representative.
Transition is addressed directly. Regulation 3 preserves market availability in Great Britain for machinery or partly completed machinery that was placed on the market in Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the EU before 20 January 2027 under the previous versions of regulations 12A, 12B or 12C. It also preserves continuing obligations tied to those legacy products. That saving matters for stock already in circulation, spare units held by distributors, and machinery moving through long sales or installation cycles. Businesses will not need to revisit every historic placement decision on commencement day, but they will need a clear record of when a product was first placed on the market and under which compliance route.
In Northern Ireland, the position is different because the EU Machinery Regulation applies directly under the Windsor Framework. Part 3 of the instrument therefore focuses on enforcement, conformity assessment and market surveillance rather than copying EU substantive rules into domestic law. The instrument allows UK-based conformity assessment bodies to operate for this market where they meet the Machinery Regulation requirements and have been notified by the Secretary of State as UK notified bodies. Where a UK notified body has carried out the relevant Article 25 conformity assessment and the CE marking is affixed, the UK(NI) indication must also be placed on the machinery or related product, visibly, legibly and indelibly, next to the CE marking and before the product is placed on the market in Northern Ireland. Importers must ensure that this has been done.
The Secretary of State must assign each UK notified body an identification number and keep a public register showing the body, its number, the activities for which it has been notified and any restrictions on those activities. The instrument also permits the UK national accreditation body to compile and maintain that register on the Secretary of State's behalf. A further provision is aimed at legal continuity for UK conformity assessment. For the purposes of Article 34(5) of the Machinery Regulation, an objection cannot be based simply on the fact that the conformity assessment body is established in the United Kingdom or that its accreditation certificate was issued by the UK national accreditation body. The notified body number used for the relevant EU procedures is the number assigned under the domestic register.
Enforcement in Northern Ireland is split by end use. The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland is the enforcing authority for products for use at work. District councils enforce within their area for products not for use at work, while the Secretary of State or an appointed person may also enforce in that non-work category. The instrument aligns these bodies with the market surveillance framework and updates the Market Surveillance (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 accordingly. Economic operators commit offences if they breach the listed obligations in Articles 10, 11, 13 to 16, 18, 19, 23 or 24 of the Machinery Regulation. For failures relating to the UK(NI) indication, the enforcement model is staged: the enforcer must first require the non-compliance to be remedied within a reasonable period, and only then move to withdrawal, recall or prosecution if the breach continues. The penalty provisions allow up to three months' imprisonment or a statutory-maximum fine on summary conviction, and up to two years' imprisonment or a fine on indictment.
Part 3 also creates an information-sharing route where an enforcer can pass information to the Secretary of State for onward disclosure to the European Commission or member States, subject to data protection law. At the same time, regulation 15 revokes the 2008 machinery regulations as they apply in Northern Ireland, but keeps existing obligations alive for machinery already placed on the Northern Ireland or EU market before 20 January 2027 in accordance with the old rules. The Explanatory Note states that no full impact assessment has been produced because no significant effect on the private, public or voluntary sector is expected. Even so, the compliance task is clear. Businesses selling machinery across the UK will need to separate GB access rules from Northern Ireland placement rules, check when CE marking alone is sufficient and when CE plus UK(NI) is required, and ensure that English-language technical files, declarations and instructions can be produced for the full retention period.