Units of Measurement Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Weights and Measures (Northern Ireland) Order 198 1 (“the 1981 Order”), the Weights and Measures Act 1985, the Units of Measurement Regulations 1980 and the Units of Measurement Regulations 1986 so as to implement in part the amendments made by Council Directive 89/617/EEC (O.J. No. L357, 7.12.89, p. 28) to Council Directive 80/181/EEC (O.J. No. L39, 15.2.80, p. 40) (“the Directive”) which relates to the use of units of measurement for economic, public health, public safety or administrative purposes.

The 1981 Order is also amended to reflect the requirements of the Directive by the Weights and Measures (Metrication) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 1995 (S.R. 1995 No. 227) (“the 1995 Order”) which should be read in conjunction with these Regulations so as to see how the 1981 Order’s provisions as a whole are amended in implementation of the Directive.

The 1995 Order and these Regulations between them end, in general, the authorised use for trade after 30th September 1995 of the imperial units of measurement most commonly used to describe length, area, volume and mass (such as the yard, pint and pound) except as supplementary indications of quantity. The 1995 Order and these Regulations do, however, provide certain exceptions which permit the continued use as primary units of some of those imperial units for specific purposes beyond that date. The pound (lb), for example, may be used either as a supplementary indication or until 1st January 2000 as a primary indication for the sale of goods loose from bulk. These Regulations made consequential amendments to the Weights and Measurements Act 1985 and the Units of Measurement Regulations 1986 to take account of amendments made to the 1981 Order by, respectively, the 1995 Order and these Regulations.

A Compliance Cost Assessment of the impact that these Regulations will have on business is available, copies of which can be obtained from the Department of Economic Development, Trading Standards Branch, 176 Newtownbreda Road, Belfast BT8 4QS.