The UK left the EU in January 2020 and the transition period ends on 31 December 2020*. Shortly after our exit, the COVID pandemic spread across the UK and Europe. In June 2020, the UK government announced that there would not be any extension to the transition period, and there remains some uncertainty around the UK’s future relationship with Europe.

St John Ambulance recognise that this has the potential to impact on the pricing and delivery timescales of certain products, however we would like to assure our customers that we are putting in place measures to ensure the continued availability of our products at the best possible prices.

We are also working very closely with our suppliers to confirm that they are compliant with all the requirements for the sale and transport of medical devices within the UK and the EU.

Finally, we would like to highlight the following regarding Brexit and the Medical Device Regulations (MDR):

• The existing UK legislation for medical devices, which is based on the EU Medical Device Directive (MDD), will continue in force in Great Britain (**different arrangements apply for Northern Ireland) with amendments to enable functionality in the UK from 1 January 2021.
• St John Ambulance will continue to comply with MDD/MDR and any new UK Gov regulations on Medical Devices and IVDRs

*UK’s New Start, Let’s Get Going. HM Government UK Transition document, gov.uk/transition

^** Northern Ireland Protocol. From 1 January 2021, the Northern Ireland Protocol will take effect. Businesses and individuals will be able to move goods from Northern Ireland into the rest of the United Kingdom on the same basis as now. However, the application of the Protocol will involve some changes for goods movements into Northern Ireland (including declaring goods coming into and out of Northern Ireland and GB). Processes for Northern Ireland businesses moving goods to and from the European Union (including Ireland) will not change after the Transition Period.