Imperial scales may give short measure – says metric group
The following news release was issued by UKMA at 02:00 on 18 January:
news release … newsrelease … news release … news release … news release …
For immediate release
“Imperial scales may give short measure” – says metric group
The general public would be well advised to avoid buying from traders who use illegal scales that only weigh in pounds and ounces – so says the UK Metric Association (UKMA). Imperial-only scales have not been checked by Trading Standards Officers for over eight years, and it is quite possible that they are no longer accurate. There is therefore a significant chance that when you buy from shop or market stall that uses illegal scales you will get less than you are paying for.
Responding to reports that a market stall-holder in Hackney is being prosecuted on Friday, 18 January for Weights and Measures offences, UKMA Chairman, Robin Paice, said; “Obviously, I can’t comment on this particular case as we don’t know the full facts. However, the publicity surrounding the case suggests that, like the so-called “metric martyrs” in Sunderland and elsewhere, this is really a political stunt. People are entitled to campaign to change the law, but they are not entitled to break laws just because they disagree with them. They don’t deserve any sympathy.”
Background
Since 2000, UK law has required that all shops and markets in the UK must weigh and measure at the point of sale (checkout) in grams and kilograms. Traders’ scales are periodically tested by Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) to ensure they are accurate. However, traders can still give an equivalent price in pounds and ounces if they wish. Customers can also order in pounds and ounces if they wish, and the shopkeeper or trader simply has to weigh out an equivalent amount in grams and kilograms.
Originally, it was intended that the option to show equivalent imperial prices would be phased out after 2009, but the European Commission has now proposed that this option should be retained indefinitely. However, increasingly, supermarkets are dropping the imperial equivalents, and customers are ordering at the deli counter in grams rather than obsolete ounces.
Unfortunately, egged on by populist, Eurosceptic politicians, some traders decided in 2000 to try to defy the law and continue weighing in pounds and ounces. The so-called “metric martyrs” (more accurately, they were “imperial luddites”) were found guilty of various offences under the Weights and Measures Act and fined. All their appeals to the UK courts and even the European Court of Human Rights were rejected in 2001/2.
The current issue in Hackney appears to be an attempt to re-run the same political stunt. It is unlikely to work, as it is now obvious that the law is home-grown UK law and not dictated by Brussels. People are getting rather bored by the antics of fringe politicians seeking bogus martyrdom.
UKMA Chairman, Robin Paice added:
“The purpose of the UK law is to ensure that consumers can compare goods in the supermarket and the street market on the same basis, using the same measurement units. How can you compare tomatoes at £2.09 per kilogram in the supermarket with tomatoes at 99p per pound in the market – unless you know the conversion factors and have a pocket calculator with you? It is fundamental to consumer protection that every body uses the same measurement units.
My advice to shoppers is this:
- Avoid traders who use illegal imperial scales. You don’t know whether you are getting short measure.
- Don’t waste your sympathy on traders who deliberately broke the law in order to seek bogus martyrdom. The vast majority of traders operate legally and cope perfectly well with metric measures.
Every country needs a single system of weights and measures that everybody understands and uses for all purposes. Nobody needs two systems.”
Notes for editors
(a)The UK Metric Association (UKMA) is an independent, non-party political, single issue organisation which advocates the full adoption of the international metric system (”Système International” - SI) for all official, trade, legal, contractual and other purposes in the United Kingdom as soon as practicable. UKMA is financed entirely by membership subscriptions and personal donations.
(b)Further extensive background information can be found generally on UKMA’s website at www.ukma.org.uk.
(c) The following are available for interviews:
Robin Paice (Chairman of UKMA) on 023 9275 5268 or for radio/tv interviews in Portsmouth or Southampton
Derek Pollard (Secretary) on 020 8374 6997 for radio/tv interviews in London
January 18th, 2008 at 12:44
Why do these people call themselves “metric martyrs”? The term suggests that they were killed for their beliefs, and using the term metric suggests it was because they were great believers in metric. A christian martyr was someone who was killed for being a christian. These people using imperial illegally are really just total fakes and phonies. I think you are right in that it is a political game, with one group of activists wanting to use situations like this for their own political cause.
The real solution is for the government to provide proper education for all consumers in metric and promote the use of metric through advertising, etc., so that consumers will want to ask for loose goods in metric. Then these greedy stallholders who overcharge and deceive through the use of dodgy scales will find they have no custom when they insist on continuing to defraud their customers.
January 18th, 2008 at 14:01
In French and Spanish markets stall holders position their scales so that shoppers can clearly see not only their “certificates of authorisation” (in the form of on officially-issued sticker), but also the unit price of the product, the weight of the product and total amount due. In contrast in UK markets, traders do not have to display any certificates of authorisation regarding their weighting equipment and the scales’ displays are often hidden by displays of goods or the scales are almost out of sight of the customer. This amounts to a licence for Del Boy to print money.
Is it not time that UK traders also be required to display at least a “certificate of authenticity” that their scales have been serviced? This would be akin to the legislation that requires all motor cars that are over three years old to have an MoT examination, necessary before a tax disc can be obtained.
January 18th, 2008 at 19:18
An additional issue is that the vast majority of shopkeepers who have complied with the law spent money to purchase compliant scales. It is unfair to those shopkeepers that there are a few others who have avoided spending their money to invest in legal weighing equipment.
January 18th, 2008 at 21:57
The so called “metric martyrs” have been playing a cunning game with the media and the public. They mix up so many different issues. They conspicuously fail to make it clear that legal enforcement of units for trade, with criminal penalties for non-compliance, has been an established practice for more than a century, just as much in Britain as elsewhere. To hear them talk you’d think it was invented by the EU. They may not say as much outright but that is what they want us to think.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they were to encourage sensible debate. If they believe that criminalising traders for not using units selected for that purpose is wrong in principle then fine, but leave Brussels out of it, it didn’t start there, it’s endemic in our own legal system.
If they don’t necessarily quarrel with that but want to debate what the actual choice should be then OK, but don’t pretend that we can have it both ways with metric and imperial having equal status, disregarding the issue of the two systems muddle.
Whilst it may be true that for some time both metric and imperial were legal in the UK, prescribed quantities for packaged goods discriminated against metric so it didn’t catch on.
The Years 1995 (for packaged goods) and 2000 (for loose goods) heralded the final push to get the trade sector to where it was supposed to be at least 20 years before at a time when people would have had a better understanding of the real purpose behind it. As it is we have seen a prolonged negligence on the part of successive governments and a growing Euro-sceptic lobby hijack it for their own ends.
Irrespective of what anyone may think about the European question I would appeal to people to try and separate that out from metrication and consider it on its own merits. Would the arguments in favour of complete metrication be any different if we were to withdraw from the EU tomorrow? We’d still have to trade with the rest of the world which is predominantly metric. All the consumer issues and the main arguments in favour of a single system would still be just as valid.
Anyone who opposes British membership of the EU does not have to oppose metrication. So think about it!
April 26th, 2008 at 12:41
They will continue using the wrong units, as long as they can profit from giving smaller measures than they should.