The Explosives Regulations 2014

The Explosives Regulations 2014 (ER 2014) came into force on 1 October 2014. The Regulations on explosives for civil use specifies in detail the essential requirements the product needs to meet in order for the manufacturer to affix the UKCA marking.

The Regulation refers to explosives defined as ‘the materials and articles considered to be explosives in the United Nations recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods and falling within Class 1 of those recommendations’. It does not apply to explosives, including ammunition, intended for use, in accordance with national law, by the armed forces or the police, to pyrotechnic articles or to ammunition.

The essential requirements specified in Schedule 9 of the Regulations encompass the minimum safety requirements and rules the product design, construction and ultimately that the final product must conform to. Among others, the rules require that each explosive device must be disposable in a manner that minimises its effect on the environment.

An Approved body verifies the compliance of a product by conducting a conformity assessment. It also ensures that the technical documentation sufficiently supports product compliance. If the Approved Body is involved in the production control phase, its identification number will follow the UKCA marking.

The conformity assessment procedures for explosives for civil use to be followed prior to affixing the UKCA Marking on the products are set out in Part 13 of the Regulations.

Manufacturers can choose between 2 procedures for assessing the conformity of explosives with the harmonised safety requirements set out in the Regulations.

The first option is the EU-type examination (Module B) accompanied by one of the following four supplementary procedures, which are all described in Part 13 of the Regulations.

• the conformity to type assessment based on internal production control (Module C)

• the production quality assurance procedure (Module D)

• the product quality assurance procedure (Module E)

• the product verification procedure (Module F)

The second option is the unit verification procedure (Module G) referred to in Annex II(6).

The manufacturer will then draw up and sign the EU declaration of conformity, in accordance with the model format set out in Schedule 18 of the Regulation.

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