Section Menu

Machinery Directive - 98/37/EC & 2006/42/EC

Directive 2006/42/EC, replacing Directive 98/37/EC, previously Directive 89/392/EEC as amended by Directives 91/386/EEC and 93/68/EEC. (The original Directive and its amendments were consolidated in the single Directive 98/37/EC.)

Subject Area

The Directive applies to all items of equipment which are covered as shown below. In essence this usually means mechanical equipment either for workplace or domestic use where the major risk to safety is deemed to be mechanical. In all cases relevant provisions of other EC Directives where these are appropriate must be taken into account in order to achieve full compliance with the Directive.

Intention of Legislation

To assist industry by reducing barriers to trade within the Single Market by ensuring a common policy of safety and supply of machinery across the European Economic Area (EEA).

Coverage

Essentially all machines which have at least one moving part, assemblies such as those in bottling or car assembly plants, interchangeable equipment which can modify the function of a machine, and safety components.

There is a strong emphasis on safety and some products which are perceived to have a higher than normal safety risk to the operator require third party testing carried out by an appointed Notified Body which will have been assessed for its technical competence to carry out this work unless they have been manufactured in accordance with transposed harmonised standards. Such items are identified in Annex IV of the Directive. Should a manufacturer of a product in this category declare conformity with the Directive by using these standards, he may lodge a copy of his Technical File with a Notified Body of his choice, or have the application of those standards verified by reference to the File by the Notified Body.

The Directive does not draw a distinction between machines used in the workplace and those intended for domestic use. Specific exemptions are shown in Schedule 5 of the UK Regulations.

Current Position

Directive 98/37/EC is fully implemented into UK law by means of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992/3073) as amended by The Supply of Machinery Safety) (Amendment) Regulations 1994 (SI 1994/2063) and the Supply of Machinery (Safety) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/831). All transitional periods have now expired and all new machinery introduced into the EEA must now comply with this Directive. No action is required in respect of existing machinery supplied to the market which predates this Directive and UK Regulations.

A comprehensive amendment of the Machinery Directive was negotiated in Brussels over the period 2001 to 2005. Following the agreement of the European Parliament in 2005 the final adoption of the amendment took place 2006 and will come into force, replacing the provisions of the existing Directive, from 29 December 2009.

On 25 September 2007 a consultation was published on a set of draft Regulations to transpose Commission Directive 2006/42/EC1 into UK law. Responses were required by 18 December 2007. The Consultation document and BERR's Response, published in April 2008, are also available from the right.

Current Problems with Directive 98/37/EC

Overlap between the Machinery Directive and the Low Voltage Directive

Consideration as to how the provisions of EMC should be applied to Machinery within the scope of this Directive

Lack of transposed harmonised standards to support the Directive.

The scope of the Directive is not entirely clear and, therefore, the definition of "machinery" needs to be refined.

Future Work

Matters of interpretation of the existing Directive between Member States continue to be discussed within the working group set up under Article 6.2 of this Directive which is chaired by the European Commission.

The Commission has established a small Editorial Board that has oversight on the provision of interpretive guidance to support the implementation of the new Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC). The UK is represented on this 'Board' by the HSE's Head of Product Safety. The UK played a key and critical role in lobbying for this 'Board' and has offered to be, in collaboration with other Member States and key stakeholders, responsible for writing the draft text on Annex 1 sections four and six. All draft guidance will be subject to ratification by the Machinery Directive Working Group, be an Internet-only based reference tool (to allow for ease of updating); and be in a limited number of EU languages.

Guidance

A comprehensive Guidance booklet is available from the right, and you can also order a hard copy online via BERR Publications.

You can also order printed copies of our Frequently Asked Questions booklet, our Transposed Harmonised Standards list, and the Independent Sources of Advice list.

A list of UK Notified Bodies is available to download from the link on the right.

To help machine designers to have a better overview of product safety and performance legislation of European Union origin relating to machinery, the Department is now publishing "Integrated Product Standards Guidance for machinery designers". This is an attempt to link our own guidance documentation and other useful material together through a summary and hypertext links prepared on our behalf by Mr Paul Makin, the former CEN Consultant for Machinery Safety, after consultation with industry and other interested parties.

Contacts Peter Baxter-Ludlow / Graham Payne, Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, Bay 384, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET, Tel: 020 7215 1453 / 0923 Fax: 020 7215 2635