Place wood and wood products on the market

A. Source timber legally — UK Timber Regulation due diligence

If you place timber or timber products on the Great Britain market for the first time, the UK Timber Regulation prohibits placing illegally harvested timber on the market and requires you to operate a due-diligence system — gathering information on your supply, assessing the risk that it is illegal, and mitigating any significant risk. It applies to a wide range of timber and wood products. The regime is enforced by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. Set up and maintain your due-diligence system and keep the records for at least five years.

B. Mark construction products to their standard

Structural timber, glued-laminated timber, wood-based panels for construction, and similar products covered by a designated standard need a declaration of performance, the supporting technical documentation, and conformity marking before you place them on the Great Britain market. Use UKCA marking, or CE marking, which continues to be accepted on the GB market — with an approved body involved where the standard requires it. If you supply Northern Ireland, check the position there separately, as it follows EU rules under the Windsor Framework.

C. Control formaldehyde and meet your UK REACH duties

Wood-based panels — particle board, MDF, fibreboard, plywood and OSB — release formaldehyde from the resins used to bond them. In Great Britain there is not yet a specific emission-limit restriction for placing these panels on the market — the Health and Safety Executive is reviewing formaldehyde under UK REACH — so control rests on two things: making your boards to the recognised product emission class that customers and specifiers expect (the E1 class under the harmonised panel standards), and controlling worker exposure to formaldehyde under COSHH. For the Northern Ireland and EU markets a formaldehyde-release restriction under EU REACH does apply (from 2026), so if you supply there, check that position separately. Use low-emission boards and resins and keep the supplier information and any test evidence for the emission class you meet.

More broadly, the substances in your resins, adhesives, preservatives, glues and finishes are subject to UK REACH, including its restrictions on named hazardous substances and the duty to pass safety information down the supply chain.

D. Meet general product safety for consumer goods

Wood and cork consumer goods that fall outside a specific regime — household and decorative items, cork products, tool handles, brush backs and the like — must still be safe under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, the residual catch-all enforced by OPSS and local Trading Standards. In Northern Ireland the EU General Product Safety Regulation applies instead.

E. Treat and mark solid-wood packaging for export

If you make pallets, crates, cases, dunnage or other solid-wood packaging that travels internationally, it must be treated and marked to the international phytosanitary standard ISPM 15 — normally heat treatment, then the ISPM 15 mark applied by a business registered and audited under the scheme. In the UK the scheme is run by the Forestry Commission with its plant-health partners. Get registered before you mark wood packaging, and keep treatment records.

What to do next

With your safe-plant spine and your product-market duties in place, confirm the whole picture with the wood-products manufacturer compliance checklist. Start from the router if you are not sure which guides apply to you.