The central role of the metric system in the UK National Measurement System

In December 2022, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a report called “UK Measurement Strategy for the National Measurement System”. It describes the importance of measurement in our everyday lives but says little about the central role of the metric system in the UK National Measurement System (NMS). In fact, it barely mentions it.

The Foreword describes the role of measurement in science, innovation, trade and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In one of the few references to SI, as the modern metric system is called, the Foreword tells us that the UK’s measurement laboratories developed and provided SI-traceable reference materials to support vaccine development.

The report mentions predictions for future demands for energy in terms of millions of tonnes of oil equivalent and millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. These are the only measurements that appear in the document, and they are metric.

In a reference to the importance of global standards and international co-operation, the report states:

“The National Measurement System represents the UK in the international measurement community, cooperating with other measurement institutes around the world under a mutual recognition arrangement of national measurement standards and calibration and measurement certificates, and strengthening the UK’s position as a science superpower.”

Below this paragraph, the report shows the logo of the International System of Units, which was introduced in 2019 to mark the redefinition of the SI units.

These are the only references to the SI in the whole document. Why does this BEIS document say so little about the critical central role of the metric system in the NMS?

You can find the BEIS “UK Measurement Strategy for the National Measurement System” report at:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1125285/UK_measurement_strategy_2022.pdf

14 thoughts on “The central role of the metric system in the UK National Measurement System”

  1. This Tory government clearly has blinders on when it comes to metric. Looks like the only hope for progress is a Labour government after the next general election. Labour appears more likely to be rational about the need for a coherent standard of measurement, which has to be 100%
    SI, period, full stop.

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  2. Ezra,

    I don’t think one can claim that a specific government is pro or anti metric. I’m sure both parties have a membership of both supporters and opposers.

    What we need is to find a person or persons within the governmental system who not only support the metric system but would be willing to work to have metrication completed. Are there any?

    There may be hundreds for all we know, but they may be afraid to come forth due to perceived anti-metric bias among the voting population that can do harm to their political career. These individuals need to be informed and to feel confident that a significant number of the population would support a completion of metrication.

    I would hope that the UKMA knows of possible supporters among the ranks and are guiding them towards overcoming resistance, especially from the fake media. But, for obvious reasons things have to be done quietly behind the scenes.

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  3. I think we have been through this before, probably when that ludicrous document was published.
    I said then and say again, what we have in UK, our mixed muddle of SI/imperial, is what can now be referred to as our very own “UK National Measurement System (NMS)”.

    So entrenched is this in our everyday lives that little or nothing will change for any foreseeable future. Any government will face all sorts of weird arguments as to why we should keep our muddle for ourselves.
    There are a number of joke lists of “how to measure like a Brit” in UK which are in fact a bit short of the farce that is reality.

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  4. This report is heavy on rhetoric. In trying to read between the lines, I read up soe of the earlier government reports on the National Measurement System and noticed that while it dealt with big tech, it omitted discussing how measurements affect everyday decisions. I then looked at an old posting on Metric Views, written by Robin Paice 12 years ago (almost to the day). Robin came to exactly the same conclusion that I had come to – without ensuring that the man (and woman) in the street is familiar with and uses the units of measure as are used in high tech, the United Kingdom will have a dislocation in the way in which various sectors of the country communicate with each other.

    In reading the documents, I saw a glaring error on page 16 of the document “UK Measurement Strategy – Confidence in Investment, Trade and Innovation” (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/605955/uk-measurement-strategy-accessible.pdf) where I read “International System of measurements – … under the auspices of the Committee International des Poids et Mesures (CIPM)”. A pity that the system they were talking about was SI, that they should have written about the BIPM, not the CIPM and that they used the word “Committee” rather than “Comité” when writting in French.

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  5. A single standard for units of measurement is what has always been the goal (since Magna Carta, for sure, at least). So, it is once again more than puzzling that this BBC article on its web site (link below) about the heat waves in Europe keeps adding temperatures in Fahrenheit right after every cited temperature in degrees Celsius whereas in the video clip embedded in that same article from BBC television the meteorologist sticks to degrees Celsius exclusively (as well she should).

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66212501

    What’s good enough for BBC TV ought to be good enough for the written articles published by the BBC. This absurdity of plastering on Imperial when it is totally unnecessary is enough to make a sane person’s head explode! <:-O

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  6. So, the UK edition of The Guardian had to add one instance of Fahrenheit after the temperature in degrees Celsius when describing the heat wave in southern Europe:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/16/thousands-forced-out-of-homes-la-palma-canary-islands-as-heatwave-grips-europe

    So, why just one instance of Fahrenheit? The rest of the article completely ignores Fahrenheit with many references to temperatures in degrees Celsius only. Who can explain why The Guardian is doing this in their UK edition? Seems both odd and completely pointless.

    Sadly, when I watched the program on Sky News “The Press Preview” where they discuss the front pages of the the day’s newspapers, the first newpaper article discussed was indeed the one from The Guardian. Both the commentator from Huffington Post and the one from The Spectator referred to the high temperatures in degrees Celsius followed by degrees Fahrenheit.

    Really??? Isn’t Sky News mostly watched in the UK? What’s the point of including degrees Fahrenheit for a UK audience?

    I’m totally baffled by this. Help! :-0

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  7. Ezra, I think this is done because it is what their organisations’ style guides dictate, and yes it is completely pointless.

    e.g. Both the BBC and The Guardian have this bizarre rule of converting to Fahrenheit either “in brackets on first mention” of a temperature in a story, or when it is deemed “appropriate”. However, neither of their style guides attempt to explain why the rule exists. It seems just as daft as it would be to convert to shillings and old pence the first mention of a price in a story about rising food prices.

    The Guardian’s style guide for writing temperatures can be found at the following link, just below the entry for how to write the names of the Teletubbies (yes, The Guardian is meant to be a newspaper for grown-ups):

    https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-t

    “temperatures
    thus: 30C (85F) – ie celsius, with fahrenheit in brackets on first mention; but be extremely wary (or don’t bother) converting temperature changes, eg an average temperature change of 2C was wrongly converted to 36F in an article about a heatwave (although a temperature of 2C is about the same as 36F, a temperature change of 2C corresponds to a change of about 4F)”

    The BBC News Style Guide can be found at this link:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/t/

    “temperatures
    Always use Celsius, not centigrade or Fahrenheit. Contrary to our usual style with numbers, we always use digits with temperatures (eg: 8C, 10C, 42C). It may sometimes be appropriate to add a Fahrenheit conversion to UK stories eg: The temperature rose above 38C (100F) on Friday, a UK record.”

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  8. M wrote:

    “However, neither of their style guides attempt to explain why the rule exists. ”

    The rule exists because some Luddite that had access to the guide or power to make the final decision on what goes into the guide is obviously an opponent of metrication. Thus they used their position to push their personal preference on others rather than consider what is in the majority’s or the nation’s interest.

    “but be extremely wary (or don’t bother) converting temperature changes, eg an average temperature change of 2C was wrongly converted to 36F ….”

    This error occurs because it is not converted by a person but my a computer program that is designed to spot temperatures in a story and automatically add the equivalent in parentheses. The program can’t tell the difference between an actual temperature and a temperature difference.

    I’m also confused as to why they use the unit symbols for coulomb and farad by omitting the degree symbol. I would think that in newsprint world, the degree symbol should be easy to reproduce.

    “…The temperature rose above 38C (100F) on Friday, a UK record.”

    I find it somewhat ironic that in their example they pick a temperature for their example that just happens to workout to a rounded 100 in foreignheat units. Why not use this example instead: “The temperature rose above 40 °C (104 °F) on Friday, a UK record.”?

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  9. Journalists often work to a very tight deadline and I think that some of the short cuts that they take are designed to minimise the scope for error. Thus writing “40 °C” has two complicated characters (ie characters not on the standard keyboard) – the non-breaking space and the degree symbol. This is probably their excuse and I think that they are sticking to it.

    The other symbol that they seem incapable of using is the slash symbol as in “km/h”. Again, if they are submitting hand-written copy, the slash has a special meaning – see http://www.lancingpress.co.uk/printing-information/factfile_proofmarks_apr14.pdf. Frequent use in, for example, “km/h” could slow things down. Again this is probably their excuse and I think that they are sticking to it.

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  10. Martin,

    If tight deadlines are the reason for not providing proper unit symbols, than for sure tight deadlines would be a reason not to provide conversions of units. The time needed to access a calculator to do a unit conversion and then insert it in the text would be the same as typing in the correct symbol. Yet, for some reason they can find the time to do one but not the other.

    Now, we know the newsprint industry does not manually do and enter conversions. We know these conversions are done by software programs designed to search out units of measure and do conversions. So, with the newsprint media using said software programs that can search through an article and look for units of measure and convert them from one unit to another and either replace the original with a converted unit or add the converted unit in parentheses, then they can also create and use software programs that can locate and identify incorrect unit symbols and missing spaces, etc and correct them. The reason they don’t is because for some reason they prefer to use incorrect symbols. Somehow it must make them feel like they are going against authority. If not, you tell me.

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  11. Daniel, totally agree about what is simply auto in-korrection. The main culprit is automatic first letter capitalisation. Why they auto in-korrect km to Km and kg to Kg is a total mystery to most of us, the software can be easily changed to do the reverse of this or not do it at all, I have done it myself. What I cannot make it do is auto correct to second letter capitalisation as in Kwh to kWh. Strangely, just typing Kwh tries to convert it to Kph.
    It is this stupid nonsensical fake office software that needs to be put to sleep as one very simple big leap forward.
    So why is that not done? If I can do it locally in my own office software, who is stopping it being done in the real world of office software?

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  12. I did a quick online check of an English language newspaper and a French language newspaper in Canada and see that they use degrees Celsius for temperature, give wind speed in km/h, and land area in hectares. Not a hint of Imperial anywhere, which is amazing given the oversized influence of the American Imperial-drenched behemoth just to the south of their border. This puts the British media to shame, sadly. 😦

    Maybe a new government will help change things after the next general election. Let’s hope.

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  13. Ezra,

    Let’s hope that the next new government, if there will be a new government, contains new leaders that have either a science and/or or industry/business background that they have a pro-metric attitude and see the folly of any talk of returning to imperial and hopefully have a desire to complete metrication and end the war for all time.

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  14. I wonder if there is a way to contact Tom Singleton, a technology reporter for BBC News.
    Why?

    Because this presumed technology reporter did something incomprehensible. He took a rational metric length (with no mention of Imperial) provided in the official press release from Cargill about the cargo vessel outfitted with modern “sail” technology to reduce carbon emissions and described that same height of the sail first in Imperial (again, not given in the original press release) and then added the metric height (from the original press release) in parentheses!!!

    Who on their right mind commits such an egregious sin? What on earth could he have been thinkinng? And how can we give this guy a good thrashing?

    Original press release:
    https://www.cargill.com/2023/cargill-bar-technologies-wind-technology-sets-sail

    BBC News article:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66543643

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