Explanatory note

These Regulations implement the amendments made by Council Directive 89/617/EEC (OJ No. L 357, 7.12.89, p.28) to Council Directive 80/181/EEC (OJ No. L 39, 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 specified circumstances”).

They amend the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 1986 (“the Packaged Goods Regulations”) and the Weights and Measures (Quantity Marking and Abbreviations of Units) Regulations 1987 (“the Quantity Marking Regulations”).

The amendments made to the Packaged Goods Regulations include the substitution, on 1st October 1995, of metric for imperial quantities in relation to the prescribed maximum capacities of weighing instruments used for making up packaged goods under the system of quantity control known as the “average system”.

Those made to the Quantity Marking Regulations require, among other things, catchweight products to be marked, on and after 1st October 1995, with a metric indication of quantity. As a general rule the Quantity Marking Regulations will require, on and after that date, containers to be marked with metric units whilst also permitting supplementary imperial marking.

A Compliance Cost Assessment of the impact that these Regulations will have on business will be available in the libraries of the Houses of Parliament once the Regulations, having been made, are laid before Parliament and from the Consumer Affairs Division of the Department of Trade and Industry, Room 407, 10-18 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0NN.