A trade body representing electro-mechanical technicians is calling on the UK Government to extend right-to-repair legislation to industrial equipment.
The Association of Electrical and Mechanical Trades (AEMT), which represents around 300 workshops, technicians and engineering companies specialising in repairing and maintaining electric motors, pumps, generators, gearboxes, and other rotating equipment, is lobbying ministers to expand the legislation that currently applies largely to consumer products such as televisions and washing machines.
It argues that manufacturers should be required to make machinery easier to repair as the country pursues greater resource efficiency and a more circular economy.
Speaking at a First Friday Press Club briefing in London last week, AEMT Director General Thomas Marks said repairability should become a central pillar of future industrial policy.
“We’ve got legislation here for consumer products – phones, TVs, and white goods – that says they should be repairable,” he said. “I want to push this into industrial equipment as well.”
Marks argued that while policymakers have focused heavily on improving motor efficiency, future regulation should consider the lifecycle of entire industrial systems, including whether equipment can be maintained, repaired, and kept in service for longer.
As industrial machinery becomes increasingly software-driven, owners and independent repair businesses are finding it harder to access the diagnostic tools and software needed to carry out repairs.
His intervention comes as the right-to-repair movement gathers momentum internationally as consumers continue to demand the ability to access inexpensive repairs to anything from smartphones to tractors without software lockouts, specialist equipment, or being sent to the manufacturer’s own technicians.
Since the pandemic, more and more local and national governments have been passing their own versions of right to repair legislation, with laws of some sort now passed in the EU, UK, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. In the United States, six states have passed right-to-repair legislation and another 57 bills are currently progressing through 22 states. And further legislation is proposed in New Zealand, India, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia and Taiwan.
Some manufacturers have opposed the legislation. Many argue that devices are so complex that only licensed specialists can be trusted to fix them and that they open themselves up to legal liability if repairs are not conducted properly.
In April 2026, agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere agreed to pay $99 million into a settlement fund for farms and farmers to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it monopolised repairs by restricting access to diagnostic software, tools, and technical information. Deere denied any wrongdoing. Apple too faced a number of lawsuits regarding difficulties in repairing its mobile phones before the tech giant endorsed the California bill in 2023.
Marks believes similar problems could emerge across industrial equipment if policymakers focus exclusively on deploying increasingly efficient machines without considering how easily they can be maintained throughout their operational life.
He described a case involving one of the AEMT’s members, which was approached by the NHS to repair a motor in a fan unit. The repair itself would have cost around £200, but because of a software lockout the motor could not be repaired independently. Instead, the NHS was forced to replace the complete unit at a reported cost of £20,000.
“These are fringe cases,” Marks said. “But they happen a lot, and with better regulation we can stop those cases.”
The AEMT is now working to gather evidence on how often industrial equipment is replaced when repair would have been technically and commercially viable. That evidence will underpin discussions with government departments and policymakers responsible for future ecodesign and circular economy legislation.
“Repair isn’t nostalgia. It’s not ‘make do and mend’ anymore. It’s repair because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
He acknowledged that extending repair rights to industrial machinery would not be straightforward. Permanent magnet motors, increasingly used to achieve the highest efficiency ratings, often require specialist repair equipment that only a handful of companies currently possess.
“If we’re pushing and pushing higher-efficiency motors and machines that are difficult to repair, are we shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit?” Marks asked.
He also questioned whether sufficient supplies of rare earth magnets would be available to support widespread deployment of permanent magnet machines over the long term, arguing that retaining valuable materials within the UK economy should become part of the discussion.
“There’s value in all that copper and definitely in the magnets,” he said. “If we’re sending them overseas, we’ve lost the value in that machine.”
For Marks, repairability is about more than environmental sustainability. He argues that a stronger repair economy would create skilled engineering jobs, improve supply-chain resilience, and strengthen UK manufacturing.
“Our members make a much bigger margin if they’re repairing this equipment rather than simply supplying new motors,” he said. “That leads to more jobs with skilled people. Those jobs are durable — they’re not going to be replaced by AI or robots very easily.”
