With effect from 1 January 2021 the Timber and Timber Products Placing on the Market Regulations (UKTR) replace the European Timber Regulation (EUTR).

Similarly, the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulations are now replaced by the UK FLEGT Regulations which apply in Great Britain. The requirements for the UK regulations remain the same.

The UK Timber and Timber Products Placing on the Market Regulations (UKTR) apply to any operator or trader within the GB timber supply chain. The obligations imposed by UKTR are different at different points in the supply chain, therefore a business trading in timber or timber-related products must understand whether it is acting as an ‘operator’ or a ‘trader’.

Extent of obligation

Any natural or legal person who buys and sells timber or timber products already placed on the GB (England, Scotland and Wales) market – a trader – or first places timber or timber products on the GB market – an operator – is responsible for compliance.

How to comply

Traders must keep records of who they buy timber or timber products from, and any traders they sell them to.

Operators must not place illegally harvested timber on the GB market and to avoid doing so must first apply a due diligence system, under which they:

• gather information on timber, including its species, quantity, supplier, country of harvest and compliance with applicable legislation
• assess the risk of timber being illegal, applying set criteria in the regulations
• mitigate any identified risk to negligible, by obtaining additional information or taking further steps to verify legality

All species in composites must be considered separately, but where they are a mix of virgin and recycled timbers, only the former need to be assessed.

For further information on the timber regs, click here.

For those trading in Northern Ireland different rules apply:

While NI remains part of the UK customs union, EU Timber regulations are in force. If you are moving timber to or from NI, you should be aware of the following:

• There will be no new due diligence checks on timber flowing from NI to GB.
• Due diligence checks will take place on timber flowing from GB to NI.
• Due diligence checks will take place on timber entering NI directly from non-EU countries. They will not take place if entering directly from an EU or EEA country.