Machinery Directive
Overview of the new Machinery Directive to assist Industry in their understanding of it.
This Directive, 2006/42/EC, replaces Directive 98/37/EC with effect from 29 December 2009
Subject area
The Directive places requirements on manufacturers to ensure their products, when supplied, are safe. Its scope covers industrial machines to domestic appliances. Where the provision of other EC directives apply eg. the Low Voltage Directive, these 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 most machines which are either complete or partly completed and 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. Such items are identified in Annex IV of the Directive.
Current position
Directive 2006/42/EC is implemented into UK law by means of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1597) (external link).
Machinery in the supply chain prior to 29 December 2009 is subject to the requirements of Directive 98/37/EC.
Guidance
To aid industry, the department has published guidance notes on the UK Regulations, which, in Annex N details additional sources of references (see Related Documents).
It also produces periodic reports on the meetings of the Machinery Directive Working Group in advance of the official Commission minutes.
Additionally, a comprehensive body of guidance on the Directive has been published by the European Commission. This guidance will only be internet based so as to facilitate quick and easy updating, be subject to regular review; and be available in a limited number of European languages.
Notified Bodies
A list of Notified Bodies accredited under Machinery can be found by following this link to the European Commission's NANDO (New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations) Information System.
The list can be sorted by country or by Notified Body name by clicking on the column headings. The contact details, accreditation information and information on the Directive modules for which the organisation is notified can be found by clicking on the Notified Body name. Please note that UK based companies are not restricted to using UK Notified Bodies.
CAUTION:
The Department is aware of cases where organisations claim (or appear to claim) to be notified bodies authorised to carry out conformity assessment and certification when they actually hold no such appointment. Please see further information in the attached
warning note (DOC, 42 Kb) .
Contacts
All enquiries relating to the information shown on this webpage should be sent to Product Regulation .
