As part of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations or Scottish Byelaws there is a need for any fitting to be compliant when installed, will carry, or receive water from the public mains water supply in the UK.  These require that a water fitting should not cause waste, misuse, undue consumption, or contamination of the water supply and must be ‘of an appropriate quality and standard’.

 From the legislation:

(1) Every water fitting shall–

(a) be of an appropriate quality and standard; and

(b) be suitable for the circumstances in which it is used.

(2) For the purposes of this regulation, a water fitting is of an appropriate quality or standard only if–

(c) it conforms to an appropriate British Standard or some other national specification. which provides an equivalent level of protection and performance; or

(d) it conforms to a specification approved by the regulator.

For a manufacturer to demonstrate that their products are compliant to the regulations, they can get their products WRAS approved. During the approval process a product will undergo rigorous testing and evaluation.

All non-metallic materials will be evaluated to:

BS 6920 - Suitability of non-metallic products for use in contact with water intended for human consumption with regard to their effect on the quality of the water.

 The complete product is then required to go through mechanical performance testing, a manufacturer has two options for the approval scheme.

Option 1:

Get the product tested to an appropriate standard, at WRAS we are continually review British Standards to assess the suitability to become an appropriate standard. The current list can be found here:

Water Regulations Approval Scheme Ltd - Appropriate Standards (wrasapprovals.co.uk)

Option 2:

Get the product tested to the Regulators specification, which consists of a series of nearly 200 test code sheets. Test code sheets are not written for an entire product but test particular characteristics. For an individual water fitting or assemblies of fittings, several test code sheets are likely to be applicable.  

A list of test codes sheets can be found here

As part of the WRAS ISO 17065 accredited certification scheme the testing is required to be carried out by a recognised laboratory. A list of all recognised Laboratories and testing they are recognised to carry out can be found in here:

Water Regulations Approval Scheme Ltd - Contact Details of Laboratories (wrasapprovals.co.uk)