The UK’s RoHS enforcement agency – National Weights and Measures – is currently recruiting enforcement officers, but gave no details of numbers.
The organisation, which was appointed last summer to enforce the RoHS Directive, did not say how it plans to enforce the Directive.
“There is a contractual arrangement with the DTI that I cannot say anything about this,” said Chris Smith, RoHS project manager at the enforcement agency.
It leaves a lot of uncertainty among electronics manufacturers in the UK about how the RoHS Directive will be enforced and what testing will take place.
Chris Hunt, sales and marketing director at contract manufacturing firm SMS Electronics, told Electronics Weekly that it now asks customers for a certificate that states their products are RoHS compliant or exempt from the Directive.
“Theoretically, a customer could say it is exempt and is exporting its product to India, for example, but there is no way we can know that is what is happening,” he said.
Another source at National Weights and Measures admitted that it would be using some sub-contracting to do its testing on products, but also would not say how many enforcement officers it planned to recruit.
www.nwml.gov.uk
www.smselectronics.co.uk
See also: Electronics Weekly's roundup of content related to The ROHS Directive