PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Iron and Steel (24 November 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he last met or spoke to representatives of the UK Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels regarding the traceability and certification of Chinese and Turkish steel products imported to the UK.

Asked by:
Stephen Doughty (Labour)

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has maintained close contact with the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) who investigated a complaint about CARES from UK Steel about labelling and traceability of imports.

UKAS concluded that CARES responded in an appropriate way to the concerns raised, in line with the expectations and requirements of the accreditation standard. That conclusion has been communicated to UK steel and to the All Party Parliamentary Group on steel.

We understand from UKAS that there has been an increase in CARES’ vigilance with increased sampling and checks.

I have also been advised that, as a result of ongoing discussions between CARES and UK Steel, the association supplied samples of imported rebar and CARES testing found it was non-compliant. As a consequence we understand CARES visited the Chinese steel mill and conducted further sampling and testing but found no evidence of stock production being non-compliant.

Answered by:
Matt Hancock (Conservative)
17 December 2014