Government agency Envirowise has been criticised for giving potentially misleading information about the requirements for companies to meet the July 1 deadline for the RoHS Directive.

Liverpool-based manufacturer Brainboxes complained to Envirowise that advice it had received from the organisation’s help desk seemed to be at odds with the legal requirements of the RoHS Directive.

“Complying with this legislation is costly for our business so to find out that a Government funded-body is encouraging companies to ignore the law is appalling and puts us at a significant disadvantage to those companies simply because we are law abiding,” Stephen Evans, managing director of Brainboxes told Electronics Weekly.

According to Envirowise, an enquiry to the Environ­ment & Energy Helpline “unfortunately resulted in advice being given in a manner not compliant with its operating practices”.

Envirowise programme director Dr Martin Gibson said he was taking this matter “very seriously” and had contacted Brainboxes to apologise and to clarify the issue.

“Our policy is to encourage every company to follow the letter and the spirit of the law,” said Dr Gibson.

Brainboxes contacted the Envirowise helpdesk for practical advice on whether cables shipped with its products were covered by the RoHS legislation.

According to Evans, he was “amazed” by the reply. Evans said that the helpdesk advised him that the RoHS implementation date was “1st August” and not July 1.

The helpdesk advisor said the cables could not be shipped post-RoHS date, but then suggested in an unofficial capacity that the authorities were not likely to worry about such a small issue. “It’s the big boys they’re really bothered about,” the advisor told Evans.

“We have investigated the incident fully and the transcript of the call demonstrates a relevant and factual response to the company’s query. We understand that as an addendum to the advice the adviser made off the record comments, and these formed the basis of the company’s complaint,” said Dr Gibson.

It is not clear whether other firms have received similar advice. “But if other companies have any uncertainty with any advice we are very keen for them to get back to us,” said Dr Gibson.

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