Water & Wastewater Treatment

Interview 4 THE PUMPING STATION - PUMP AND VALVE SUPPLEMENT 2017 80 The number of BPMA member companies. BPMA members supply 85% of the pumps in the UK market, with the pump sector also being a net exporter. 68 The number of major categories of pump available from BPMA members. Each category of pump can have multiple applications, meaning there are thousands of combinations in total. £1BN The approximate size of the UK market for pumps. The BPMA publishes a buyer's guide and also runs technical training courses for its members. Interview by James Brockett D espite its name, the British Pump Manufacturers Association (BPMA) and the pump manufacturers it represents have interests far beyond these shores, with the international trade of pumps and European regulation being among its major concerns. So it's no surprise that Steve Scho• eld, the BPMA's director and chief executive, has been working overtime since the Brexit referendum result to work out what it means for pump companies. A survey of the BPMA's members in the a- ermath of the vote revealed that pump manufacturers' customer base is split remarkably equally between the three geographical divisions of the UK, Europe and the Rest of the World. While it is not yet clear what trade barriers might be erected between the UK and its continental neighbours, it's apparent that those companies with cross-border operations will have important decisions to make about the location of their manufacturing bases in the future. However, one issue that Scho• eld feels is a priority is that the British Standards Institute (BSI) retains its membership of CEN - the European standards body – ensuring that the standards applied to equipment such as pumps remains consistent. This would appear a reasonable aim since countries such as Switzerland and Norway are CEN members despite not being part of the EU. "The head of BSI has said that he hopes it will stay within CEN, but he couldn't 100% guarantee it," says Scho• eld. "That's because although BSI is not linked with the UK government, some other governments around Europe are very much linked with their standards bodies, and one of them might want BSI and the UK to leave CEN for political reasons. That's a concern for us. "At the BPMA we are the custodians of pump standards in the UK, and one thing we are de• nite on is that we need to stay within CEN, to keep consistent standards moving forwards. "Beyond that, the UK government has got 63,000 pieces of European-based legislation to look at a- er we've le- , which it's got to decide if it's going to keep, amend or remove. There are 19 European directives that a™ ect our members, so obviously we are most concerned about whether there are going to be any changes to them." However, in the case of one of the directives that has proved problematic in recent years - the Energy Related Products (ERP) Directive - it is not so much the content of the legislation that has displeased manufacturers but the UK government's enforcement of it. Pump companies have gone to great lengths to assess, improve and correctly label the energy eš ciency of their products, but have found that imported pumps which make inaccurate claims or do not meet the regulations are slipping through the net and reaching the UK market. Scho• eld has been arguing for some years that the UK government's surveillance of its market is poor compared to other European countries, which is all the more worrying because the pumps which have been so far been subject to the rules have been the small, relatively simple circulator pumps, with the more complicated pump and drive sets (up to 400 kW) set to come within the The UK pump industry in numbers ‚ Never mind Brexit - the UK government needs to step up in its enforcement of current directives, says Steve Scho eld, Chief Executive of the British Pump Manufacturers Association

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