Following a communication from the Office of Product Safety & Standards informing that the European Commission is conducting an ELV (End-of-Life Vehicle) Directive consultation, PAAA members have been asked to contribute.

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The Office for Product Safety and Standards is responsible for enforcing parts III and IV of the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2635). The regulations cover cars (with up to 9 seats) and small vans (of up to 3.5 tonnes), including components made for them. Part III (Regulations 6-13) provides the design requirements and part IV (14-26) provides the information requirements. 

 

Regulation 6 states- "A person who puts on the market materials and components of vehicles shall ensure that they do not contain lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium except in the cases listed in Annex II to the Directive, as that Annex is amended from time to time."

 

Who is responsible?

The responsibility lies with a person who puts on the market materials and components of vehicles. The ELV Directive does not contain a definition of "put on the market", however, this term is understood to be the act of making a product available in return for payment or free of charge, with a view to distribution, use, or both, for the first time on the Union Market. In practice this means that the responsibility for compliance is held by a manufacturer or an importer. 

 

Does this apply to vehicles or to materials and components?

The restriction on heavy metals applies to vehicles and their materials and components put on the market on or after 3 November 2003. In other words, vehicle materials and components should be 'heavy-metal-free' as specified in regulation 6, unless used in the applications, and within the concentrations, set down in Annex II to the ELV Directive. 

Regulations 7 and 8 provide a requirement to retain technical documentation concerning this prohibition for four years, from the date the vehicles, components and materials are put on the market, and to make them available to regulators when requested. There is no specified method for how this information should be obtained, compiled or kept but might include obtaining assurances of conformity from a producer's material and component suppliers. 

Further information can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/elv.

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Posted by the PAAA - August 2019