The Marking of Retail Goods Regulations 2025 - Not for EU Labelling

Following the UK/EU Summit on 19 May, the Government is taking forward a new strategic partnership with the EU. Once an SPS Agreement has been implemented, there will be opportunities to further smooth trade within the UK Internal Market System. However, achieving such benefits relies on the UK being a reliable partner which delivers on its existing commitments. To that end, the Government have committed to implement the arrangements for the Windsor Framework in a faithful way.

Since launching in October 2023, the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) has smoothed the movement of retail goods between Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (NI).. To prevent onward movement into the EU, relevant products require ‘not for EU’ labels to be printed or over-stickered onto packaging. As you know, Phase 3 of NIRMS commences on 1 July 2025, bringing a much greater range of products into scope and potentially increasing the risk of ‘delisting’ where businesses choose not to apply those labels.

To safeguard the supply of retail goods into Northern Ireland, we introduce new legislation today - The Marking of Retail Goods Regulations 2025. This empowers the Defra Secretary of State to introduce ‘not for EU’ labelling in Great Britain by commodity, where it is determined there is a likelihood that the availability of certain goods in NI will be seriously adversely affected by those goods being delisted.

The Secretary of State will make that decision based on a range of available evidence and will be using a data-driven system to inform this. Businesses will play a critical role in Defra’s market monitoring and will be engaged in the first instance where a risk has been identified. If the evidence demonstrates it is necessary, he will issue a notice which applies a requirement of ‘not for EU’ labelling to a specific product or products across Great Britain. This will help to ensure that the products continue to be made available in Northern Ireland through NIRMS. We will continue to support you throughout the process to ensure your understanding of any new labelling requirements.

We have greatly welcomed recent commitments from businesses that they will continue to make sure that their goods are available in Northern Ireland and encourage you to keep on communicating with us on your readiness for July. However, we will act with these new powers should we need to.

Shortly, we will stand up a dedicated NI-GB Food Supply Forum to explain this in more detail. Invites will be issued shortly.

In the meantime, for further information see the Guidance on the Process for introducing 'not for EU' labelling for goods sold in Great Britain.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/process-for-introducing-not-for-eu-labelling-for-goods-sold-in-great-britain