PART 1PRELIMINARY

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“accuracy class” means the classification of an automatic discontinuous totaliser as set out in paragraph 17 of Schedule 1;

“authorised representative” means a person who is established in a member State and is authorised by a manufacturer, in writing, to act on his behalf;

“automatic discontinuous totaliser” means an automatic weighing instrument that determines the mass of a bulk product by dividing into discrete loads. The mass of each discrete load is determined in sequence and summed. Each discrete load is then delivered to bulk;

“automatic weighing instrument” means an instrument that determines the mass of a product without the intervention of an operator and follows a predetermined programme of automatic processes characteristic of the instrument intended to determine the mass of a body by using the action of gravity on that body;

“automatic weighing range” means the range from minimum capacity to maximum capacity;

“CE marking” means the CE marking referred to in regulation 12;

“the Commission” means the European Commission;

“compliance notice “ means a notice served in accordance with regulation 18(2);

“conformity assessment procedure” means any procedure referred to in regulation 6;

“the Directive” means Directive 2004/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31st March 2004 on measuring instruments (1);

“disqualification sticker” means a sticker the design of which is published by the Secretary of State and which is affixed to an automatic discontinuous totaliser in accordance with regulation 21;

“enforcement authority” means any person who is, pursuant to regulation 17, authorised to enforce these Regulations;

“enforcement notice” means a notice served in accordance with regulation 19(2);

“enforcement officer” means—

(a)

an inspector; or

(b)

a person appointed by the Secretary of State to act on his behalf to enforce Part II of these Regulations;

“essential requirements” means the requirements set out in Schedule 1;

“harmonised standard” means a technical specification adopted by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) or jointly by two or all of these organisations, at the request of the Commission pursuant to Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22nd June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society Services (2), as amended by Directive 98/48/EC (3), and prepared in accordance with the General Guidelines agreed between the Commission and one or more of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI;

“instrument” has the same meaning as automatic discontinuous totaliser;

“in writing” includes text that is—

(a)

transmitted by electronic means;

(b)

received in legible form; and

(c)

capable of being used for subsequent reference;

“load receptor” means a part of an automatic discontinuous totaliser on which loads are placed for the purpose of their being weighed;

“M marking” means the M marking referred to in regulation 12;

“manufacturer” means a person responsible for the conformity of an automatic discontinuous totaliser with these Regulations with a view to either placing it on the market under his own name or putting it into use for his own purposes, or both;

“maximum capacity” means the maximum discrete load which the automatic discontinuous totaliser is authorised to weigh and that can be weighed automatically on a load receptor;

“maximum permissible error” means, in the case of an automatic discontinuous totaliser—

(a)

falling within an accuracy class set out in column 1 of the Table in paragraph 17 of Schedule 1 when it is placed on the market, the maximum permissible error set out in column 2 of that Table in respect of that accuracy class; and

(b)

falling within an accuracy class set out in column 1 of the Table in regulation 14(d) when it is in use for trade, the maximum permissible error set out in column 2 of that Table in respect of that accuracy class;

“minimum capacity” means the minimum discrete load which the automatic discontinuous totaliser is authorised to weigh and that can be weighed automatically on a load receptor;

“minimum totalised load” means the value of the smallest bulk load that can be totalised without exceeding the maximum permissible error when the automatic operation is comprised of discrete loads, each within the automatic weighing range;

“non-automatic zero-setting device” means a device for setting the indication by the operator;

“normative document” means a document containing technical specifications adopted by the Organisation Internationale de Métrologie Légale subject to the procedure stipulated in Article 16.1, the reference of which is published by the Commission in the Official Journal of the European Union pursuant to Article 16.1(b);

“notified body” means—

(a)

the Secretary of State; or

(b)

a United Kingdom notified body; and

(c)

for the purposes of regulations 4(1)(c), 19(1)(b), 21(1)(c) and 24(6), a person designated by another member State,

who has been notified to the Commission and the other member States pursuant to Article 11.1;

“notified body criteria” means the criteria set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2;

“place on the market” means making available for the first time in a member State an instrument intended for an end user, whether for reward or free of charge;

“put into use” means the first use of an instrument intended for the end user for the purposes for which it was intended;

“relevant national standard” means a standard applicable to an instrument—

(a)

implementing a harmonised standard that has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union C series; and

(b)

the reference of which is published—

(i)

in the United Kingdom by the Secretary of State; or

(ii)

in another member State by the competent authority pursuant to the third sub-paragraph of Article 13.1;

“relevant normative document” means a normative document applicable to an instrument, the reference of which is published—

(a)

in the United Kingdom by the Secretary of State; or

(b)

in another member State by the competent authority pursuant to the third sub-paragraph of Article 13.2;

“re-qualification sticker” means a sticker the design of which is published by the Secretary of State and which is affixed to an automatic discontinuous totaliser in accordance with regulation 22;

“semi-automatic zero-setting device” means a device for automatically setting the indication to zero following a manual command;

“United Kingdom notified body” means a person designated under regulation 7; and

“zero-setting device” means a device for setting the indication to zero when there is no load on the load receptor.

(2) Other expressions used in these Regulations have the same meanings as in the Weights and Measures Act 1985.

(3) In these Regulations, a reference to a member State includes Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein (4).

(4) References in these Regulations to an Article, Annex or a part of an Annex are references to an Article, Annex, or a part of an Annex to the Directive.

(1)

OJ No. L135, 30.4.04, p.1.

(2)

OJ No. L204, 21.7.98, p.37.

(3)

OJ No. L217, 5.8.98, p.18.

(4)

The application of the Directive was extended to the European Economic Area by Decision No. 31/2005 (OJ No. L198, 28.7.05 p.20.