When the United Kingdom departed from the European Union (EU) on December 31, 2020, all of the EU Regulations on automotive type approval were transposed into UK law. However, it was recognised that some significant amendments to these "transposed" Regulations would be required before they could be implemented in the UK to form a GB specific type approval scheme. Whilst the necessary Regulatory amendments were being developed, an interim "Provisional" GB type approval scheme was put in place for motor vehicles of categories M, N, L and T, i.e. passenger vehicles, goods vehicles, two and three wheeled vehicles and agricultural tractors.
On December 14, 2022, the necessary amendments to the "transposed" EU Regulations and existing UK Regulations to introduce a full GB type approval scheme were published as GB Statutory Instrument 2022 No. 1273, which is titled The Road Vehicles and Non-Road Mobile Machinery (Type Approval) (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2022.
Under the new requirements introduced by this Statutory Instrument, compliance with the full GB type approval scheme will become mandatory for new types of M and N category vehicle (i.e. passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, buses, coaches, pick ups, vans and trucks) from February 1, 2024. Compliance with the full GB type approval scheme for existing types of M and N category vehicle will become mandatory when their "Provisional" GB type approval ceases to be valid (Note: "Provisional" GB type approvals only remain valid for 2 years from their date of issue).
For O category trailers, the date from which compliance with the GB type approval scheme becomes mandatory for new types of vehicle is February 1, 2025. Full GB type approval schemes for L and T category vehicles are still under development. Therefore, the Statutory Instrument allows the "Provisional" GB type approval scheme applicable to those categories of vehicle to continue until December 31, 2027, by which time full GB type approval schemes for these categories of vehicle should be available.
Great Britain Statutory Instrument 2022 No. 1273 is available on InterRegs.NET for our GB subscribers and is also available at www.selectregs.com.