Enforcement machinery

Directives are the European laws published in the Official Journal that give us the essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs) that shall be followed by product suppliers. These are commonly called the Essential Requirements (ERs). The directives deal with legal and procedural issues, such as assessment procedures, certification, implementation, enforcement, technical files, declarations, CE marking, and other basic concepts. Examples of primary directives are the Low-Voltage, Machinery, and EMC directives. The General Product Safety and Product Liability Directives are basic directives dealing with enforcement and civil prosecution that are applied to all products. The directives also mandate the publication and mutual recognition of harmonized standards. 

In addition to the enforcement provisions contained in 92/59/EEC on General Product Safety, the primary directives (Low-Voltage, EMC, and Machinery directives) clearly state that a member state may restrict a product s marketing or take other appropriate actions for any of the following reasons ... 

When a member state ascertains a product s nonconformity, it may take appropriate measures. Depending on the situation and nonconformity of the product, the manufacturer will then have to do one or more of the following with the product restrict or prohibit its sale, make it comply, withdraw it from the market, or destroy it. A domino effect then occurs. The member state notifies the Commission, which, in turn, notifies the other member states, which then also take appropriate action. Figure 5-1 shows the risks of non-conformity. Three examples illustrating enforcement trends for EMC, product safety, and machinery are as follows. 

Labour is involved in regulation and its enforcement in a variety of ways, from the level of government down to the workplace. At the level of government the involvement is via the machinery of tripartism—the philosophy which holds that State agencies should be run by boards consisting of representatives of business, labour and government. These boards are responsible for standard setting and... 

In Great Britain, the Health and Safety Executive is responsible for enforcing the Regulations in relation to machinery and safety components for use at work. Local authority Trading Standards Officers are responsible for enforcement in relation to machinery and safety components for private use. 

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