Victory for UKMA as W&M legislation is saved from bonfire of EU laws

When former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg introduced the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill last year, around 4000 EU-derived laws were in danger of being scrapped by default at the end of this year. Among the threatened laws were several items of weights and measures legislation, which this blog covered in the Rees-Mogg’s legislation time bomb article. Several amendments to the Bill were accepted and most of the laws have been saved from the axe. The Bill received royal assert at the end of June 2023 and is now the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act.

When the REUL Bill was going through Parliament, UKMA was active in opposing the Bill and seeking amendments to the worst aspects of the Bill. UKMA wrote to stakeholders, gave evidence to a parliamentary committee, published critical articles about the Bill on Metric Views, joined the Safeguarding Our Standards coalition and contacted MPs and Lords.

A lot of stakeholders opposed the Bill, including business organisations, trade unions, trade bodies, standards organisations, environmental groups and lawyers. With the help of stakeholders, UKMA secured important changes to the Bill. The sunset date of 31 December 2023 was scrapped and the scope of the Bill was reduced to a list of around 600 laws that would be removed from the statute book. These laws appear in Schedule 1 of the Act. Schedule 1 is split into two parts; Part 1 lists the laws that will be revoked and Part 2 lists amendments to various laws. Schedules 2 and 3 list further amendments. None of the affected legislation relates to weights and measures.

The laws listed in the Rees-Mogg’s legislation time bomb article and other weights and measures legislation are now safe from the Act and are here to stay. UKMA has won the battle to keep weights and measures legislation on the statute book. This battle was won against powerful opponents such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and the European Research Group. It shows what can be achieved when UKMA works with stakeholders. The REUL Act does not threaten to roll back weights and measures legislation, unlike the REUL Bill in its original form.

You can find more information about the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act at the following links:

9 thoughts on “Victory for UKMA as W&M legislation is saved from bonfire of EU laws”

  2. Let’s be honest there was no plan on getting rid metric measurements in the UK, considering that we’ve joined the CPTPP (all metric countries) have trade deals with the EU (all metric countries) and have free trade deals with countries outside of the EU and CPTPP except for the US (a non-metric country) it would be economical suicide to use a measurement (imperial) that 99% of the World has long since abandoned even Myanmar and Liberia have started the transition to metric only.

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  3. I hope the W&M legislation is also saved from the bonfire of the fake news media and will force those individuals in the media with a personal hatred of SI to cease and desist all future claims of a reversion to FFU. This victory for common sense should be an embarrassment to them for all past articles salivating at the prospect of a return to imperial/FFU.

    Hopefully also, this can lead to a push for the completion of metrication throughout the British aisles and an enforcement of SI based W&M laws in the market place.

    The members of the UKMA who were active in the fight to remove W&M legislation from the REUL Bill (I would hope) now need to work with the very same individuals mentioned to bring about the effective completion of the metrication process and within a reasonable amount of time. The status quo can no longer be tolerated.

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  4. Lee Kelly,

    The US is non-metric only as far as the general public is concerned. There are a number of businesses institutions and industries that operate internally in metric units but keep it hidden from the general public, giving the false impression the US is not metric at all.

    The US is committed to metrication as are ALL countries now, but the US like some others (like Belize) are purposely slow to integrate SI units in areas that affect the general public. The same trade deals the UK has with various other nations, the US has too. I doubt any trade deal between the US and the world exempts the US from having to use SI and allows US organisations to force the world to accept FFU as a result.

    If anything, the US status would be considered hybrid. A metric background with an FFU surface.

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  5. @Daniel

    Sadly, support for fully visible and universal metrication in the USA seems to be quite weak across all demographic groups. It will take a Democratic government in 2024 controlling the White House and Congress with decent majorities to undertake an education program to shift public opinion first.

    Unfortunately, that is unlikely as far as I can tell. For now, I would settle for the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act to be amended to at least permit (not require) metric only labels on packages.

    That change would be one small step for Congress, one giant leap for metrication in the USA (with apologies to Neil Armstrong when he first set foot on the moon. 😉

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  6. We need to be very careful. The opponents of metrication are not giving up. According to this article published on 2023-07-04:

    Post-Brexit Push For Imperial Measurements Could Be Revived

    https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/post-brexit-imperial-measurements-drive-revived?fbclid=IwAR1TC70ZLEhxe9rnWudvJmGuPWYQ6GcgNMLAqyt9nOVZOuz5c_hOmNVRiEo

    It states:

    “Kemi Badenoch, the secretary of state for business and trade, has since decided not to scrap EU regulation dictating the labelling of measurements as part of plans to do away with some Brussels laws by the end of the year. ”

    So we see that what is stated in this Metric Views post was already known a month or so ago.

    But, it seems the opponents of metrication are betting on some form of reversal coming not from the REUL Act, but in the King’s speech this autumn.

    “Ministers are considering reviving plans to bring back imperial measurements as part of the legislative agenda to be set out in the King’s Speech this Autumn.”

    Returning to imperial or just keeping imperial alive may not be popular with the public, business organisations, trade unions, trade bodies, standards organisations, environmental groups and lawyers, etc, but it still seems to be popular with many fervently pro-Brexit Conservative MPs.

    Quoted from the article: “The campaign to restore units of weight and measurement like pounds and ounces in the UK is popular with many fervently pro-Brexit Conservative MPs. ”

    “But PoliticsHome understands that the government is now looking at ways of creating greater choice for businesses and consumers when it comes to units of measurement as it puts together its legislative agenda for the run-up to the next general election, which will be announced in the King’s speech in the autumn.”

    So it seems the war is not quite over yet. The opposers to metrication will try anything to get their way. So the proponents of metrication need to keep their eyes open and to counter the opponents at every step. Everyone should read thoroughly the article and understand their plan.

    I hope those who have worked feverishly to keep metric units from being abolished under the REUL ACT will work with the same individuals to keep the issue out of the King’s speech and out of any legislative agenda and even out of the next general election. Hopefully instead, a move to complete metrication can become part of the legislative agenda.

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  7. The USA is not as anti-metric as many make it out to be. It is self-sufficient on many commodities, particularly food. Therefore it has had less need to be involved with international trading with metric countries. There are some exceptions. USA has a vast wine industry and exports wine world-wide. Wine from the USA is in 750 ml bottles, just like everywhere else. As I have stated elsewhere, American Ford Motors had a big part in getting metric nuts and bolts accepted over here.

    Anyone who says that we should retain imperial measures for the sake of trading with the USA is talking nonsense.

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  8. Lee:

    I think the idea of rolling back the existing legislation was to entrench imperial into everyday life even further, in street markets and small shops in particular. Anything to stop this retrograde step is welcome news. The aim must be to work towards having a single system of measures and units, to abolish the supplementaries, which by any allowance of a reasonable passage of time for people to accustom themselves to metric, have more than served their purpose. Twenty years and counting should be more than enough to get used to metric, counting in tens! So a big well-done and thank you to UKMA!

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  9. I believe that the REUR Bill was doomed from the start. I do not see how the civil service could have gone through all the 400 plus EU-derived laws by the end of 2023 without making a large number of blunders. This would have left the government in the embarrassing position in December 2023 of trying to get themselves out of the mess. From mid-December onwards they might have faced multiple court cases calling for judicial reviews regarding multiple individual cases and the only sensible way out would have been for the government to move the cut-off date to 31 December 2024 at which time the country could be in the middle of an election campaign. The alternative would have been for the courts to strike the law from the statute books.

    The real question would have been how much damage the bill would have caused bfore being struck off (or amended) had the House of Lords not acted on the advice of the various bodies who opposed this bill (including the UKMA). Well done UKMA for opposing this poorly though-out bill.

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