The RoHS deadline will not be pushed back, and RoHS will come into force this weekend, said the Government.

This quashes any last hopes companies may have had that there would be a delay similar to that applied to the WEEE deadline or, some years ago, the EMC Directive.

In response to a written question from Lord Stoddart of Swindon, Lord Sainsbury, Parliamentary under-secretary of state at the DTI said: “Being a single market directive, the UK could not delay the implementation of the restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment directive without serious threat to the functioning of the free movement of goods across the European Union.”

Stoddart had asked: “Whether, in the light of new evidence, they will make representations to the European Commission to repeal the hazardous waste directive, which bans the use of lead and five other metals [sic] in electronic products and comes into force on 1 July; and whether they will delay its implementation in the United Kingdom pending an examination of the effects on British industry, including any financial effects.”

UK RoHS enforcer the National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) is playing its cards close to its chest and will not discuss its day-one enforcement strategy with Electronics Weekly.

Yet we know the European enforcement guidelines allow NWML to kick-off RoHS investigations with a hand-held XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analyser, without first having to wait for documentary evidence.

An indictaion of the NWML’s first enforcement targets is given in the wording of the guidelines.

“Member State enforcement authorities must, in the first instance, decide which electrical and electronic equipment categories and products they wish to select for further investigation,” states the European RoHS guidelines.

According to the guidelines: “These decisions will be made following market surveillance activities and could involve one or more of the following criteria: market intelligence, random selection; products known to contain materials of high concern, high volume products, short life products, consumer products unlikely to be recycled, notification of concern from external parties, notification of concern from other Member States.”

See also: Electronics Weekly's roundup of content related to The ROHS Directive