UK Responsible Person
The UK Responsible Person is the legal entity that answers for your products' compliance in Great Britain. Selling cosmetics or medical devices into GB without a UK entity of your own? This is the legal role you're missing. Taylored Consultancy acts as UKRP for brands worldwide, holding your documentation, notifying your products, and standing between you and the regulators, so you can sell in the UK without opening a UK office.
One partner, both rulebooks - cosmetics under the UK Cosmetics Regulation, medical devices with the MHRA.
A UK Responsible Person (UKRP) is a company or individual established in the United Kingdom who is legally responsible for a product's regulatory compliance in Great Britain. Non-UK manufacturers of cosmetics and medical devices must appoint one before selling into the GB market. The UKRP holds your compliance documentation, notifies your products to the UK authorities, and acts as the regulators' point of contact for your brand.
The role exists because of Brexit. When the UK left the EU's regulatory system it kept the machinery but changed the nameplates: the EU Cosmetics Regulation became the UK Cosmetics Regulation (UKCR), CPNP notifications became SCPN notifications, and medical devices now register directly with the MHRA. Every one of those UK systems needs a UK-established entity behind it — and if you don't have one, you appoint one.
That's the job description on paper. In practice, a good UKRP is the difference between a compliance question answered in an afternoon and a pallet of stock stopped at the border while somebody works out who's responsible for it.
One more distinction worth making: the Responsible Person is not your importer or your distributor. Importers move stock; distributors sell it; the RP answers for compliance. One company can hold more than one of those roles, but the obligations are separate — and it's the RP the regulations name first.
Yes. If you're placing cosmetics or medical devices on the GB market and your business isn't established in the UK, appointing a UKRP isn't optional — it's a legal precondition of selling.
It depends. If your UK company places the product on the market, you can usually act as your own Responsible Person — the real question is whether you want to carry the obligations in-house. Many UK brands appoint us anyway for the documentation and monitoring workload.
An EU RP does not cover the UK. Since Brexit they are two separate legal roles under two separate regulations — one of the most common, and most expensive, assumptions we correct in first calls.
Northern Ireland is the exception that catches people out: under the Windsor Framework, NI follows EU rules, so products sold there need an EU-side Responsible Person while Great Britain needs a UKRP. If you sell across the whole UK, you effectively need both, we provide UK and EU cover under one roof.
“Responsible Person” sounds like an address on a label. It's a working legal role with obligations attached — these are the ones we carry for you, across both cosmetics and devices.
Every cosmetic product placed on the GB market needs a Product Information File, including its CPSR, held at a UK address and kept up to date. We hold yours, maintain it, and produce it whenever the authorities ask.
Before a cosmetic can be sold in Great Britain it must be notified through the Submit Cosmetic Product Notification (SCPN) service. We prepare and submit notifications for every product and every variant, and keep them current.
GB labels must carry the UKRP's name and address and meet UK labelling rules, INCI ingredient listings, warnings, and claims included. We review your artwork before it prints, not after it's on shelf.
Medical devices must be registered with the MHRA before they're placed on the GB market, and for overseas manufacturers, that's the UKRP's job. We register your devices and keep registrations current as your range changes.
As your named UK contact, we field questions, inspections, and information requests from the Office for Product Safety and Standards and the MHRA, so regulators get fast, accurate answers and you get warning, context, and a plan.
If a product is linked to a serious undesirable effect or a safety issue, the Responsible Person manages reporting and corrective action. We run that process end to end. Fast, documented, and defensible.
Two rulebooks, one partner: for cosmetics these duties sit under the UK Cosmetics Regulation with the OPSS; for devices, under the UK Medical Devices Regulations with the MHRA. We run both from the same office — which is precisely the point of putting both verticals on one page, and one contract.
Our cosmetics UKRP service covers everything the UK Cosmetics Regulation asks of a Responsible Person — and one thing it doesn't: horizon scanning, included as standard. Your RP shouldn't just hold documents. Ours watches the legislation and tells you when something affecting your formulas changes — an ingredient restricted, an annex updated, a warning reworded — before it becomes a problem on shelf, not after.
SCPN notification for every product and variant you sell in GB
PIF and CPSR holding at our UK address, kept audit-ready
Label and artwork review before print, UKRP address, INCI listings, warnings
Claims screening against the UK Cosmetics Regulation
OPSS liaison, inspections, queries and information requests handled
Vigilance and serious undesirable effect reporting
Horizon scanning included — formula-specific alerts when legislation changes
EU Responsible Person cover available under the same roof
In year one that typically looks like: onboarding and gap-checking your PIFs, notifying your range through SCPN, getting our address onto your labels at the next print run, and setting up monitoring for the ingredients your formulas actually use. After that, the service runs quietly in the background — until the day it needs not to, which is exactly when you'll be glad it's there.
For medical devices the role carries the same name and a different rulebook. Manufacturers based outside the UK must appoint a UK Responsible Person before placing devices on the GB market — and it's the UKRP, not the manufacturer, who registers those devices with the MHRA.
We act as UKRP for general medical devices across all classes (I, IIa, IIb and III), in-vitro diagnostics, and software as a medical device. The service covers MHRA registration and its ongoing maintenance, holding technical documentation for the regulator, incident and vigilance reporting, and coordinating field safety corrective actions.
Device work is lower-volume and more technical than cosmetics — which is rather the point. The same consultancy that supports ISO 13485 quality systems and technical files can stand behind your devices as UKRP, so nothing falls into the gap between your quality system and your legal representative.
Get our instant-download UK Cosmetics Regulations cheat sheet: classification, route to market and labelling essentials in one clear guide, for £15.
UKRP cover is priced as a simple annual service, agreed in writing before you commit. What moves the number: which verticals you need (cosmetics, devices or both), the size of your portfolio, whether your documentation is launch-ready or needs remediation, and whether you want EU cover alongside.
We don't publish a rate card, because the honest answer to “what does it cost?” is “it depends on your portfolio”. What we will promise: a fixed quote after one conversation, no per-question billing, and no surprises mid-year.
Already have a UK Responsible Person? Moving is easier than you've been told. We run the migration end to end: agree a handover date with your outgoing RP, take transfer of your PIFs and registrations, update your SCPN notifications and MHRA records, and give you a label-change plan with sensible sell-through of existing stock. Your products stay on sale throughout, mid-lifecycle switches are routine, not risky.
For multi-market portfolios we act as UK and EU Responsible Person under one roof: one partner holding your documentation on both sides of the Channel, with notifications that stay in step. Consolidating a portfolio from several providers? We'll map what exists, flag the gaps, and take it over in phases.
It depends on portfolio size, which verticals you need, and the state of your documentation, so we quote per portfolio rather than publishing a rate card. You'll have a fixed annual price in writing after one conversation, usually the same week you ask.
No. Since Brexit, the EU Responsible Person and UK Responsible Person are separate legal roles under separate regulations. Selling in both markets means appointing both — we provide the two together, under one roof.
Selling in Great Britain without a required UK Responsible Person is an offence. In practice it surfaces as border delays, marketplace delistings, enforcement action from OPSS or the MHRA, and retailers refusing to list you — usually at the worst possible moment.
If your business is established in the UK, yes, the law allows it, and you then carry the PIF, notification and vigilance obligations in-house. Most non-UK businesses can't, and plenty of UK brands choose not to once they price the workload.
For launch-ready documentation, days rather than weeks. Onboarding, notifications and takeover typically complete inside a working week. If your files need remediation first, we tell you exactly what and quote it before we start.
No, under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland follows EU rules, so products sold there need an EU Responsible Person. Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) needs the UKRP. Selling UK-wide effectively means holding both.
Yes. Switching is a managed handover, not a relaunch: your documentation transfers, notifications are updated, and labels change on an agreed schedule with sell-through of existing stock. Products stay on sale throughout.
Yes, the UKRP's name and address must appear on cosmetics sold in GB, and device labelling must identify the UKRP too. Our address goes on your label as part of the service, and we review the artwork so it's right first time.
Appointing an RP is a trust decision, you're printing another company's name on your label. Ours is trusted by brands at every stage: first-launch founders notifying their first product, a premium skincare house running a multi-market portfolio, and global device manufacturers who need MHRA registrations handled without drama. Same service, same address, same phone number that gets answered.
