Press Release - Department of Trade and Industry: Regulation of
weights and measures
14 March 2003
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office reported to
Parliament today that although the Department of Trade and Industry
is responsible for the regulation of weights and measures, it needs
better information on the level of protection which is being
afforded to consumers.
The effect of inaccurate weights and measures being used for
trade, whilst not necessarily high at the level of the individual
transaction, can be significant for the economy as a whole. £1
billion worth of retail goods are sold by quantity in the United
Kingdom every week. The National Audit Office estimated that, in
2000-01, five per cent (94,700) of equipment used to weigh or
measure products such as food or petrol out of the over 2 million
items tested were sufficiently inaccurate to fail an inspection;
the quantity of 10 per cent (10,200) of batches of pre-packed goods
out of the 105,000 tested at packing plants were outside acceptable
tolerances; and four per cent (77,100) of goods in shops out of the
2.1 million tested were found to have incorrect quantity
information.
Existing legislation covers most longstanding risks to consumers
and businesses, and is able to address blatant attempts to sell
short weight or measure, but much of it has become increasingly out
of date and overly complex. The Department has been seeking to
modernise and simplify the legislation since 1999 but progress has
been slowed by a lack of Parliamentary time for primary
legislation. Sir John recommends that the Department urgently
pursues the modernisation and simplification of weights and
measures legislation in order to ensure that it is enforceable.
The Department and the National Weights and Measures Laboratory
(an Executive Agency of the Department) are jointly responsible for
ensuring that the law is enforceable. The Laboratory enforces
regulations that ensure that weighing and measuring equipment meets
approved designs. Local Trading Standards Departments are
responsible for enforcing regulations on the use of weighing and
measuring equipment for trade. The National Audit Office found wide
variations in the scale and results of local enforcement work. For
example, in 2000-01, County Councils visited on average 16 per cent
of premises where weights and measures were used in trade whereas
for Scottish authorities the average was nearly 40 per cent. Some
authorities in England and Wales visited only two per cent of their
high risk premises each year, whereas others visited over 100 per
cent. And the average rate at which weighing and measuring
equipment in use was found not to comply with the legislation
ranged from 2.5 per cent in Unitary Authorities to 8.1 per cent in
Scottish Authorities. Variations in the effectiveness of local
enforcement can lead to the accuracy and reliability of weights and
measures differing unacceptably between one part of the country and
another.
Local Authorities must provide annual information on enforcement
activity – but only a minority have complied in recent years. The
Department is taking steps to improve the information that it has
available on local enforcement work, and to support the improvement
of local authority performance. It has introduced a national
performance framework for trading standards and is currently
developing performance measures.
In continuing to develop the Framework, Sir John recommends that
the Department ensures that it can generate accurate, timely and
comprehensive information on local weights and measures
enforcement; establish the contribution such work can make to
achieving consumer protection and fair trading; and introduce
appropriate performance measures with which to help improve the
performance of Trading Standards Departments and reduce variations
in performance between them.
Sir John Bourn said today:
"The accuracy, reliability and fairness of weights and
measures is key to ensuring that the products we buy every day are
not being sold in short weight or short measure. The Department
should press ahead quickly with its plans to modernise legislation,
as well as improving its information about local enforcement of
that legislation, if it is to be effective in promoting appropriate
standards of trading across the country."
Notes for Editors
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website at http://www.nao.org.uk/ Hard copies can
be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 800 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 19/03
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