Brexit

[RTH10260]

opinion

[RTH10260]

Post-Brexit shift in immigration may mean higher wages and more self-sufficient UK economy
Sunak faces headache over India trade deal as upheaval continues in handling overseas labour

Larry Elliott
Sun 10 Sep 2023 11.20 BST

Immigration played a key role in the UK’s decision in 2016 to leave the EU. Opinion polls showed strong support among leave voters for an end to free movement and for Westminster to decide who should be allowed to enter the country for work. That’s what the slogan “take back control” was largely about.

Since the Brexit vote, the mood has changed. There is still a feeling ministers need to do more to stop people in small boats crossing the Channel. But legal immigration has ceased to be such a hot political issue. Other issues – such as the cost of living and rising interest rates – rank as more important.

The more relaxed mood is certainly not the result of Britain pulling up the drawbridge to immigrants in the past seven years. On the contrary, net migration – the number of people arriving less the number leaving – rose to a record 606,000 in 2022.

There were some one-off factors last year – the arrival of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine, for example – which won’t be repeated in the future. But even ignoring the people fleeing wars and persecution, the number of non-UK nationals either working or looking for a job rose by 257,000 in 2022. As Samuel Tombs, a UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, has pointed out, immigration accounted for almost all the 0.9% increase in the size of the workforce in the year to the second quarter of 2023. Foreign-born workers have plugged the gap left by a shortage of domestic candidates and so helped ease supply shortages.

There has been a marked shift in where the new foreign-born workers are coming from. Before Brexit, free movement under the rules of the single market meant the vast majority arrived from EU countries. Under the points-based system, workers can arrive from anywhere in the world, provided they meet certain criteria. These include having a job offer of a certain skill level, that they can speak English and that they will be paid more than £26,200 a year.

The latest data shows that the four countries that secured the most work visas were India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Philippines, with about half plugging gaps in the health and social care sector. Britain’s gain, inevitably, comes at the expense of poorer countries losing some of their brightest and best workers, even if they send a chunk of the money they earn home through remittances.



https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... rade-india

[RTH10260]

the healthy life of the UK Sovereign after taking back control

UK fails to ban 36 harmful pesticides outlawed for use in EU
Campaigners say Britain becoming ‘toxic poster child of Europe’ and accuse ministers of breaking Brexit promise on standards

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Wed 13 Sep 2023 05.00 BST

The UK has failed to ban 36 pesticides that are not allowed for use in the EU, as campaigners say it is becoming the “toxic poster child of Europe”.

Though ministers promised the UK would not water down EU-derived environmental standards after Brexit, there have been multiple instances of divergence since the country left the bloc.

Now, the country is failing to phase out pesticides that have been found to be harmful to human health and the environment at the same rate as the EU, according to research from Pesticide Action Network (PAN).

Thirteen of the 36 chemicals are considered highly hazardous pesticides under UN definitions used to identify the most harmful substances. Four of these are highly toxic to bees, one contaminates water and one is highly toxic to aquatic organisms.

Thirty of the 36 were allowed for use in the EU when the UK left on 31 January 2020 but have since been banned by the bloc, and the remaining six have been approved by the UK government but not the EU since then.

The UK government has given emergency authorisation every year since Brexit for the use of a neonicotinoid that is highly toxic to bees. In that time, the EU has banned emergency use of these chemicals.

Nick Mole, from PAN UK, said: “The UK is becoming the toxic poster child of Europe. The government has repeatedly promised that our environmental standards won’t slip post-Brexit. And yet here we are, less than four years later, and already we’re seeing our standards fall far behind those of the EU. With UK bees and other pollinators in decline, and our waters never more polluted, now is the time to be taking steps to protect nature. Instead, the government is choosing to expose British wildlife to an ever-more toxic soup of chemicals.”

Of these chemicals, 12 have been classified as carcinogens, nine have been found to be endocrine disruptors, which interfere with hormones and are linked to infertility, and eight are developmental or reproductive toxins that have also been linked to fertility problems. Two are cholinesterase inhibitors that can impair the respiratory system, and one is classified as acutely toxic.

Researchers said the divergence was caused partly by a new UK licensing regime for these chemicals after the UK government decided to grant all pesticides with licences due to expire before December 2023 an automatic extension of three years. Previously, all pesticides had a maximum licence of 15 years before they had to be reapproved.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -use-in-eu

[Volkonski]

Brexit ‘shaved £850m off beauty industry’s exports to EU’
Customs delays and increased cost of cross-border trade have affected sales, report suggests

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... orts-to-eu

Brexit has led to an £850m fall in the value of the UK beauty industry’s exports to the EU, according to a report by a leading economics forecasting organisation.

The research, commissioned by the British Beauty Council, blamed customs delays and the increased cost of cross-border trade for putting a dampener on sales.

Oxford Economics, which wrote the report, compared exports of beauty products to the EU against those to the rest of the world and found a drop-off to the single market bloc, while sales held steady elsewhere.

The small businesses that make up much of the sector have been “disproportionately damaged” by trade barriers, the report found, while decreased availability of EU workers has caused a skills shortage.

Covid-19 has also affected the sector but the report, sponsored by brands such as L’Oréal and Space NK, identified a divergence in the performance of exports to the EU and the rest of the world.

UK exports of cosmetics and other personal care products were rising between 2010 and 2016, the year of the Brexit vote, by 3.1% and 5.3% respectively. However, exports to the EU have been in decline since then.

“Covid is not the problem, Brexit is the problem,” Millie Kendall, the chief executive of the British Beauty Council, told Bloomberg. “People have pulled out of territories.”

[RTH10260]

IIRC beauty products must adhere to high standards of health protection. Special testing to protect consumers. I guess EU licensed labaratories no longer operate in the UK.

[RTH10260]

UK to loosen post-Brexit chemical regulations further
Experts warn UK’s regulations now lag behind those of the EU and that Britons will be exposed to more toxic chemicals as a result

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Tue 14 Nov 2023 06.00 CET

The government is to loosen EU-derived laws on chemicals in a move experts say will increase the likelihood of toxic substances entering the environment.

Under new plans the government will reduce the “hazard” information that chemical companies must provide to register substances in the UK. The safety information provided about chemicals will be reduced to an “irreducible minimum”, which campaigners say will leave the UK “lagging far behind the EU”.

The UK’s scheme, called UK Reach, is falling behind the EU’s as it is. The UK has not been part of the bloc’s chemicals regulations scheme, EU Reach, since 2021. Eight rules restricting the use of hazardous chemicals have been adopted by the EU since Brexit, and 16 more are in the pipeline. The UK has not banned any substances in that time and is considering just two restrictions, on lead ammunition and harmful substances in tattoo ink.

Campaigners have called for the government to follow EU chemicals regulations as standard, diverging only if and when there is a good reason to do so. This would free up time and money for regulators and mean dangerous chemicals banned by the EU do not enter the environment before there is time to ban them.

Richard Benwell, the chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said the government was “falling behind, leaving UK wildlife and consumers exposed to more toxic chemicals than our European neighbours”.

He said the new scheme would “be a misguided step in the wrong direction, permanently damaging the ability of UK regulators to identify and prevent harmful chemical pollution”.

Benwell said the new regulations prioritised cost savings for the chemicals industry over environmental protections, leaving “public health and nature to pay the price”.

As an alternative, he said: “The government should commit to follow EU chemical restrictions as standard. It should also treat chemically-similar substances in groups to stop almost identical substances appearing on the market. This would free up time and money to follow global best practice, learning from countries around the world when other toxic risks are identified.”




https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ns-further

[Suranis]

Get all natural Green beef direct from the UK!!

[RTH10260]

Britain still needs post-Brexit deals - but has the EU moved on?
The chances of the UK striking key deals with Brussels are looking up, with many seeing the new foreign secretary David Cameron as the latest step in a rapprochement

Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels
Sat 18 Nov 2023 13.00 CET

In her final key pre-Brexit speech in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen declared she would “always be a remainer”, insisting that Europe’s “bond of friendship” with the UK would remain unbreakable.

In her hour-long “state of the union” address this year, the EU’s most senior executive official did not mention the UK once, despite common interests in Ukraine, the climate crisis, energy and China.

It is a measure of how invisible the UK has become in Brussels. UK threats to unpick the Brexit deal, and years of toxic public EU-bashing by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister – and by his chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost – have left their scars.

One senior diplomat says Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s vice-president, used to refer to his meetings with David Frost as his “weekly root canal appointments”.

Another diplomat is more direct: “The UK is just not a topic of discussion any more in the EU … The only people, I would say, who talk about the British are the British.”

However, last week’s appointment of David Cameron as foreign secretary offers hope for change. While some officials still splutter with disgust at mention of the B word, there is fresh intrigue about the arrival of the Europhile former prime minister, whose ill-fated attempts to wring concessions from the EU in February 2016 led to the referendum – but apparently not to the end of his career.

Cameron’s first official appearance in Brussels is scheduled for 27 November, at a gathering of Nato foreign ministers; on that trip it is possible that he will also get to talk to Šefčovič, the commissioner with responsibility for ongoing Brexit matters.

Among senior officials there is a mood of anticipation about what someone of his international stature will bring to UK-EU relations. But in reality there is little chance of the trade deal being improved or re-opened, whether Cameron remains in the Foreign Office after the next general election or a Labour minister takes over.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... u-moved-on

[RTH10260]

British slavery, 21st century version

Seasonal cherrypicker from Chile files unfair dismissal claim against UK farm
Julia Quecaño Casimiro becomes first worker on post-Brexit scheme to launch claim after flying thousands of miles for short-term employment

Emily Dugan
@emilyduga
Wed 22 Nov 2023 06.00 CET

When Julia Quecaño Casimiro left Chile to pick cherries in Herefordshire in June, she hoped she would finally save enough money to study biochemistry. Instead, when she left the farm a month later, she ended up homeless in London with little more than £100.

Casimiro, 23, has become the first person on a seasonal worker visa to take a farm to an employment tribunal. Her claim against Haygrove farm for unlawful deduction of wages, unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment was filed last week and a preliminary hearing is expected in March.

Haygrove, which supplies cherries and berries to most leading supermarket chains, rejected her allegations and intends “to defend the claim robustly”. The case has been brought by the United Voices of the World union, which represents some of Britain’s most vulnerable low-paid workers.

Casimiro grew up in Bolivia, where she worked from the age of 11, doing jobs to prop up the family’s income as small-scale farmers. She was one of 134 Latin American workers who came to the farm but is alone in taking it to tribunal. “We were all used to working really hard but we wanted to make money,” she said.

When Casimiro arrived on the farm, terrible weather meant there was initially no work. For 12 days, she sat in a rain-hammered caravan wondering how she would make back the cost of the flight and visas. The farm lent her and the others between £50 and £100 for essentials and did not charge for accommodation during this period but did not pay them.

When work finally began in July, Casimiro said the conditions were not what she expected.

“There was constant shouting at us,” she claimed, saying that one supervisor in particular would often raise their voice. Haygrove disputed her account and said no grievances had been raised previously about the supervisor.

Casimiro said there was no drinking water available where they picked cherries and that she ended up eating the fruit to quench her thirst, for which she was reprimanded.

Haygrove said water was provided in all picking fields by team leaders and that this was regularly audited. It added that eating fruit was forbidden for hygiene reasons.

Casimiro and other workers living in the caravans had to leave at 4.20am to be bussed 90 minutes away to one of the farm’s other West Country sites. They were not paid for this time and Casimiro said she had expected to be living where she worked. Haygrove said she was offered the chance to move to the other site but chose not to, something Casimiro denies.

Casimiro said that on the day she raised concerns about the farm with a senior colleague, she was told she would not have a shift the next day.

“I was very upset,” she said. “I felt they were taking the job away not because of my work but because of what I’d dared to say.”

Haygrove denied this. A spokesperson said that higher-performing workers were allocated more shifts so it was “entirely possible” that she was not required to work, but that feedback was welcomed and never reflected in work allocation.

Casimiro said that when she was first recruited for the work in Chile back in May, she was told she could make about £500 a week and that she would have to repay no more than $1,000 (£800) for the cost of a flight.

While Casimiro was waiting around in the caravan, she received a flight bill of more than £1,500 to be repaid in six weekly £250 instalments.

Haygrove said workers were given a guide flight cost of between £1,000 and £1,400 but that flights turned out to be more expensive – and the issue became a flashpoint because of a discrepancy in the face value of the tickets and what the travel agent charged.

The farm loaned the flight cost to reduce the risk of modern slavery and paid the discrepancy in price.

After receiving the flight bill, Casimiro and many of her Latin American colleagues went on an unofficial strike. Some negotiated with the farm and returned to work but Casimiro left.

Casimiro believes that Britons would not accept the conditions “because they have better options”.



https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/ ... st-uk-farm

[RTH10260]

Fivefold rise in number of EU citizens refused entry to UK since Brexit
Home Office data reveals impact of end of free movement and raises questions over Border Force hostility

Lisa O'Carroll and Michael Goodier
Sat 25 Nov 2023 06.00 CET

The number of EU citizens refused entry to the UK since Brexit has increased fivefold, Home Office figures show.

In the first three quarters of 2019 just over 2,200 people from the EU were turned away at the border – compared with 11,600 in the first three quarters of 2023.

Since the last full year before the Covid lockdowns curtailed travel and the UK’s exit from the EU in 2020, the number of German nationals turned away has increased fivefold, from 80 in the whole of 2019 to 411 in the year ending September 2023. The number of French people turned away at the border has increased from 92 to 426 over the same period.

The data lays bare the impact of the end of free movement after Brexit but will also renew questions about the hostility shown by Border Force officials given the agreement between the EU and UK to allow six onth free travel for all citizens with a 90-day limit in an 180-day period for British citizens travelling to the continent.

Yesica Benitez, a graphic designer who is a Spanish citizen, told how she was detained at Luton airport after returning home to renew her passport.

She was apprehended by two border officials who asked if she was “coming to work in the UK illegally” despite her showing paperwork stating “this person is permitted to work subject to the restrictions in section 4” and the word “none” written in section 4 on the document.

“They treated me like I was stupid, that I was coming to work illegally. They told me my paperwork was not valid and I could not work. I had to keep showing them the words that said I am allowed to work,” she said.

“They were just so rude. Obviously I was showing them I knew my rights. I wasn’t being unpolite or anything. I was saying to them ‘I live in the UK. I am working right now and this is a document that says I can work.”

A female border official who did not believe her then called a colleague. “He took one look at my document and gave me my passport back and said I was free to go.”




https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... nce-brexit

[RTH10260]

UK’s flagship post-Brexit trade deal worth even less than previously thought, OBR says
Office for Budget Responsibility says UK entry into the Indo-Pacific agreement will add just 0.04% to GDP in the long run

Toby Helm Political Editor
Sat 25 Nov 2023 15.02 CET

The UK’s flagship trans-Pacific trade deal, which was presented as a cornerstone of post-Brexit “global Britain”, will deliver even less benefit to the economy than the tiny uplift that was previously predicted, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

In a report accompanying last week’s autumn statement, the OBR said the UK’s entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) would add just 0.04% to GDP in the “long run”, which it defines as after 15 years of membership.

The OBR said two separate bilateral deals between the UK and Australia and New Zealand, also hailed as landmark trade agreements post-Brexit, “might increase the level of real GDP by a combined 0.1% by 2035”.

The tiny predicted benefits from these trade deals contrast with the OBR’s own calculation that the UK economy will be 4% smaller than if we had stayed in the EU. Previous estimates by the government of the benefits of entry into the CPTPP have suggested a positive economic effect of between 0.08% and 1% of GDP.

The CPTTP is a free-trade agreement (FTA) between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. The UK signed an agreement to join on 16 July 2023. Each of the existing member nations will need to ratify the UK’s addition to the partnership before it takes effect.

Trade expert David Henig said that while the UK’s entry into the CPTTP had been presented as a big moment, the effects had been “hugely overhyped”.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... t-obr-says

[Reddog]

Apparently there’s a show in Britain called,
“I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here”

Just found out that Nigel Farage is supposed to be in it, from a news site, the Suffolk Gazette. Apparently the website runs on beer donations.
https://www.suffolkgazette.com/im-a-rac ... t-of-here/

[RTH10260]

pro-Brexit newspaper declares its newest "scandal" but then forgets to explain how

Scheming EU countries leave UK out of 'landmark' transport plans as map reveals betrayal
The UK is omitted from a major trans-European transport project poised for approval by the EU Commission.

By TIM MCNULTY
09:12, Tue, Dec 26, 2023 | UPDATED: 09:28, Tue, Dec 26, 2023

The UK has been left out of major trans-European transport projects that the EU is expected to approve. The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) regulatory framework agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council was approved earlier this week by the European Commission.

The new plan sets mandatory goals, such as having all trains in the network reach 160 km/h or faster by 2040 and putting in place a single European signalling system.

To improve connectivity and encourage rail transport over domestic flights, it also requires airports that handle more than 12 million passengers annually to be connected by long-distance rail.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/18 ... -transport

[Uninformed]

“Metric measurement rules to stay after Brexit review”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67795075

“The government has confirmed it is not planning to change the rules on selling in imperial measures after Brexit.
Ministers looked at changing laws inherited from the EU that mean traders can use Britain's traditional weighing system only alongside the metric one.
But they have now decided not to, after nearly 99% of respondents to an official consultation said they were happy with kilos and litres.
However, post-Brexit changes are on the way for wine sold in shops.
Legislation to be tabled in the new year will allow still and sparkling wine to be sold in "pint-sized" 568ml bottles for the first time.
It will also allow still wine to be sold in 200ml containers, potentially paving the way for an expansion in the canned wine market.”

Oh my god! How can we reclaim the empire without imperial measurements!!! (Insert screaming goat audio).

[keith]

pro-Brexit newspaper declares its newest "scandal" but then forgets to explain how

Scheming EU countries leave UK out of 'landmark' transport plans as map reveals betrayal
The UK is omitted from a major trans-European transport project poised for approval by the EU Commission.

By TIM MCNULTY
09:12, Tue, Dec 26, 2023 | UPDATED: 09:28, Tue, Dec 26, 2023

The UK has been left out of major trans-European transport projects that the EU is expected to approve. The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) regulatory framework agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council was approved earlier this week by the European Commission.

The new plan sets mandatory goals, such as having all trains in the network reach 160 km/h or faster by 2040 and putting in place a single European signalling system.

To improve connectivity and encourage rail transport over domestic flights, it also requires airports that handle more than 12 million passengers annually to be connected by long-distance rail.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/18 ... -transport

And why should such a European scheme include non-Europe facilities?

[Slim Cognito]

Yeah, what's with that?

[Reality Check]

pro-Brexit newspaper declares its newest "scandal" but then forgets to explain how

Scheming EU countries leave UK out of 'landmark' transport plans as map reveals betrayal
Map shows incredible new transport routes planned across Europe - but UK misses out
The UK is omitted from a major trans-European transport project poised for approval by the EU Commission.

By TIM MCNULTY
09:12, Tue, Dec 26, 2023 | UPDATED: 09:28, Tue, Dec 26, 2023

The UK has been left out of major trans-European transport projects that the EU is expected to approve. The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) regulatory framework agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council was approved earlier this week by the European Commission.

The new plan sets mandatory goals, such as having all trains in the network reach 160 km/h or faster by 2040 and putting in place a single European signalling system.

To improve connectivity and encourage rail transport over domestic flights, it also requires airports that handle more than 12 million passengers annually to be connected by long-distance rail.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/18 ... -transport

The headline has been revised in the article. I also added proper emphasis to the first paragraph. It almost reads like a piece from The Onion.

[RTH10260]

pro-Brexit newspaper declares its newest "scandal" but then forgets to explain how

The headline has been revised in the article. I also added proper emphasis to the first paragraph. It almost reads like a piece from The Onion.

Thanks for seeing that! They must have been ridiculed to no end

[Reality Check]

Thanks for seeing that! They must have been ridiculed to no end

You're welcome. Yes, they were skewered in he comments.

Someone in the comments suggested the UK should develop a high speed rail system together with their CPTPP partner countries. I had to look it up to appreciate the humor.

[pipistrelle]

From the same rag:

Don't miss...
Outrage as European Union threatens to 'plunder' fish near UK shores [INSIGHT]
EU abandons tariffs on UK Electric cars post-Brexit [REPORT]
Immigration is tearing apart the EU all over again [ANALYSIS]

[pipistrelle]

But:

Hoppop
47 MIN AGO
They will come crawling to the uk when they need money for it and then ask us to join like the other one horizon they only asked us to join cos they didn't have the money

[neeneko]

What I find fascinating are the number of comments along these lines:

Same as Hitler who first built Germany's railways to move troops and munitions, then in each Country as he conquered so he could move his troops to the border ready for the next invasion.

Is there some contest to see who can make the biggest Goodwin leap first?

[Slim Cognito]

I guess every country has their own version of MAGAts.

[RTH10260]

British-born man who has never left UK faces deportation
Dmitry Lima told he will be sent to Portugal, from where his parents arrived more than 30 years ago, after serving a prison sentence

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter
Wed 27 Dec 2023 14.00 CET

A 28-year-old British-born man who has never left the country has spoken of his devastation after being told he will be deported to Portugal, from where his parents arrived more than 30 years ago, under a post-Brexit policy towards EU nationals convicted of crimes.

Dmitry Lima was born in Lambeth, in south London, does not speak Portuguese and has never travelled abroad but he was given a deportation order by the Home Office after serving a prison sentence for drugs offences and for carrying a Taser.

Lima, who had no previous convictions, is appealing against the deportation decision on the grounds that he is British and had not previously applied for a UK passport as he could not afford to pay the fees. “I’m British and I have never left the country – I just don’t understand,” he said.

Under changes brought in after Brexit, an EU national’s deportation, as with that of any other nationality, is deemed “conducive to the public good and in the public interest” if they have received a prison sentence of more than 12 months.

Previously, EU nationals who had lived in the UK for five years who had been convicted of a crime would have been deported only “on serious grounds of public policy and public security”, with the threshold for those who have been continuously in the country raised to “imperative grounds of public security”.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... eportation

[RTH10260]

The costs of becoming the next wolrd economic powerhouse ...

‘We’re out of step’: how post-Brexit UK is drifting from EU standards
The UKCA quality standard is imposing unwelcome costs, from chemicals to construction materials

Heather Stewart
Fri 29 Dec 2023 06.00 CET

When the government announced this year it would indefinitely delay plans to force UK companies to adopt a new post-Brexit quality mark, the UKCA, Simon Blackham, of the insulation maker Recticel, was delighted. “Yes! An outbreak of common sense,” he recalls thinking.

His joy was short-lived, however. It quickly emerged that the government’s change of heart did not apply to construction products, such as the insulation panels Recticel manufactures in Stoke-on-Trent.

Within the next 18 months, the Belgian-owned firm expects to have to spend about £400,000 in the UK retesting its products to comply with the new regime.

It is an increasingly common story: three years on from Brexit, as the government celebrates leaving the EU’s complex regulatory regime, many firms are finding the practicalities of this “divergence” costly and confusing – and business groups say that it is going to get worse.

Chemicals are another case in point. Since January 2020, the UK has failed to ban 36 pesticides that are not allowed for use in the EU.

Blackham wearily explains that construction products are overseen by Michael Gove’s housing ministry, not the Business and Trade department which issued that statement back in August, saying the government would continue to recognise the EU’s CE mark for many products.

Gove’s department has opted instead to press ahead with replacing the CE mark with the UKCA, for all construction products sold in the UK from June 2025.

This new mark incorporates the same standards as the EU version – but only UK-accredited testing facilities will be able to validate it.

Blackham, Recticel’s senior technical manager in the UK, explains that means everything will need to be retested, by a UK-based lab. In Recticel’s case, he says, this would have to be done for eight products, at a cost of approximately £35,000 each. The firm will also have to repeat fire testing, at about £14,000 a product.



https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -standards