PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Retail Trade: Certification Quality Marks (4 March 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that second hand goods can be sold in perpetuity by charity shops even if they only have a CE label in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Asked by:
Mr Toby Perkins (Labour)

CE marking is a declaration that a product compiled with relevant EU legislation when it was initially placed on the EU market. A product does not generally have to be relabelled if it has already been placed on the market and is then later sold as second hand. The retailer does, however, have to ensure those goods are safe.

Charity retailers can therefore already continue to sell second-hand goods without needing to relabel them, as long as they are safe. This is not time-limited and will remain the case even in a scenario where the CE marking is no longer accepted for new goods being placed on the UK market.

Answered by:
Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative)
12 March 2019