The Liberal Democrats have become the latest political party to join the populist “save the pint” bandwagon. However, on this occasion their action will not only preserve the use of the imperial pint as the only legal measurement unit for the dispensing of draught beer, but arguably it will also prevent government Ministers from allowing metric measures for draught beer in the future, even if only as an optional alternative to pints.
Pub owners wishing to stage Oktoberfest-style events, with litre-steins of draught beer, will continue to be prevented from doing so, regardless of the wishes of the Minister for Business and Trade.
The current legal situation
Bizarrely, for over 25 years, draught beer and cider, and milk in returnable bottles, have been the only goods that can be legally traded in the UK using old imperial measurement units. All other goods are required to be sold using metric units.
Whilst milk in returnable bottles can also be sold in metric amounts, draught beer and cider are unique in that they must be sold only in imperial amounts of ⅓ pint, ½ pint, ⅔ pint, 1 pint, and multiples of ½ pint.
On the other hand, beer and cider in bottles and cans, and milk in non-returnable bottles, are all required to be sold exclusively in metric units. However, there are no prescribed quantities for these goods, so containers with sizes of multiples of 568 millilitres (approximately one pint) can be used, and marked in supplementary imperial units, providing that the imperial marking is not more prominent than the metric quantity marking.
University of Cambridge study
A Cambridge study last year revealed the health benefits of reducing the standard serving size of draught beer from one pint to two thirds of a pint (379 ml), but that such a significant reduction would probably be rejected by the public.
UKMA’s proposal of an optional 500-ml serving size, in a lined “pint” glass could have formed the basis for a follow up study, but would have required prior ministerial approval. However, under legislation currently going through Parliament, such approval will be all but impossible.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill
The innocuous and technical-sounding title of the Bill that was debated in the House of Commons this week, belies its true nature.
On reading the text of the legislation, as originally drafted, there is little mention of Weights and Measures. The use of the word “metrology” also seems to be an attempt to obfuscate the Bill’s application to this purpose.
This Bill is another piece of legislation in the style of the previous Government’s Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, which is often colloquially referred to as a “Henry VIII powers” Act. It is essentially a framework designed to remove the customary process of Parliamentary approval for new legislation. Instead, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade is given the power to introduce regulations unencumbered by Parliamentary scrutiny.
When this Bill passes, Parliament will relinquish all responsibility for future regulations introduced within its scope. Given that the relevant Minister can be a member of the House of Lords, Parliament could be voluntarily surrendering its sovereignty to an unelected bureaucrat.
It seems that fears among some MPs about the nature of these future regulations led to a concern that the current use of the pint might be done away with. Indeed, in the House of Lords debate on 5 March, the word “pint” was mentioned 60 times.
This is where the change to the Bill concerning the pint comes in.
On 5 March 2025, an amendment to the Bill (Amendment 38A) was introduced in the House of Lords by Liberal Democrat Lord Fox, which was accepted by the Government. The clause in the Bill as amended reads,
(4) The Secretary of State may not make regulations under this section to prevent or restrict the use of the pint in the marketing of —
(a) draught beer or cider, or
(b) milk in returnable containers.
The amendment was described as a “safeguard” to preserve the use of the pint. However, this clause arguably also prevents the Secretary of State from introducing metric measures for draught beer in the future, even if only as an optional choice for landlords, as this would necessarily reduce the use of the pint.
The Bill passed its 2nd Reading in the House of Commons on 1 April 2025 by 303 votes to 110, and is now in its Committee stage.
This Bill as amended is another regressive step in the UK’s painfully-slow metrication process.
Speaking at Foreign Office questions, Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh said:
“I’m a simple soul so I trust the Foreign Secretary completely. Will he assure me that nothing in the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill … will in any way nullify Brexit by limiting our deal to make our own decisions on regulation and to conduct our own free trade deals? And above all, as a Great British patriot, will he assure me that nothing in the Bill will allow any minister to ever abolish the most glorious of British symbols – the Great British pint?”
The Labour Foreign Secretary, David Lammy replied:
“Can I assure the right honourable gentleman that the Great British pint is safe under this Government.”
With all three major parties now actively supporting the exclusive use of the imperial pint for draught beer, we are a long way from the situation in 1904, when 333 MPs were in favour of fully adopting the metric system for all official purposes.
References
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3752
House of Lords debate – 5 March 2025
https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-03-05/debates/64F82F9F-EC44-42D3-9CC6-7D5A59270654/ProductRegulationAndMetrologyBill(HL)
House of Commons debate – 1 April 2025
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-04-01/debates/298723EA-059D-4682-8B74-C64D603A8F20/ProductRegulationAndMetrologyBill(Lords)
David Lammy says British pint ‘safe’ as MPs debate measurement legislation – 1 April 2025
https://www.independent.co.uk/business/david-lammy-says-british-pint-safe-as-mps-debate-measurement-legislation-b2725292.html
British pint to be protected in law as concession leaves Tories flat – 5 March 2025
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/government-tories-british-conservative-liberal-democrats-b1214941.html
The hidden-away bill charting a course back to Europe – No-one wants you to look at the product safety and metrology bill. And there’s a really good reason for that. – 14 February 2025
https://iandunt.substack.com/p/the-hidden-away-bill-charting-a-course
Metric Views 
That is bad news indeed. I was hoping they would be more liberal.
They will certainly get a response from me.
LikeLike
To quote from Lord Fox’s speech in the House of Lords:
“The iconic pint milk bottle is so redolent of the UK, and it deserves the same reassuring protection as the pint glass. I have to say that my father milked cows: milk flows through my veins. So I tabled Amendment 38A, which ensures that both the pint and the pinta enjoy the reassurance of this Bill.”
Anyone connected with the dairy industry should know that wholesale milk and all official production statistics are in litres, and have been so for the last 49 years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Having read through the bill (albeit quickly), it appears that the UK is trying to keep its law in harmony with EU law in order to facilitate trade between the UK and the EU. The bit about the pint appears to be a “tidying-up” provision to allow the continued use of the pint in the UK if the EU decides to remove the pint from the list of legal units of measure on grounds that nobody uses it. At the moment, I believe that the Irish still use the pint, but they might be persuaded to ditch its use when EU Directive 90/181/EEC comes up for review in 2028/9. The acre was ditched in 2000 on grounds that no-one used it any more.
I would therefore not read anything sinister into the provision – the current wording allows the minister to permit the use of metric units and also makes it more difficult for apologists for the imperial system to amend legislation to mandate the continued use of the pint for draught beer and cider and for milk in returnable bottles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Martin:
Are you saying the Irish dropped the “acre” because no one uses it?
If so, how is the situation in the UK different when it comes to the use of the “acre”?
Ezra aka punditgi
LikeLike
Well, first of all, the wine industry has already stated that to them a pint means 500 mL. This will not change. Pints of beer are often poured into a 570 mL glass which is more friendly to metric than imperial units. You can easily divide 570 mL into whole thirds but not whole ounces.
As for saving the pint, who are they saving it for? Surely not for pub patrons. Pub business is declining at a phenomenal rate. Pub pints are very expensive and many former patrons prefer to stay at home and enjoy their 500 mL pint of whatever from a bottle at a more affordable cost.
Maybe downsizing the pint to 500 mL or at least allow the industry to downsize as a means to bring the price down could be a means to save the pub industry from extinction. If other businesses were prohibited from downsizing their products when prices rise, bankruptcy would result for many.
So, if they (whoever they are) are trying to save the pint for a dying industry, then why bother to stop them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Daniel, yes, that is the whole point, who wants it?
Why are we wasting parliamentary time on this nonsense for one thing? So sad that any MP still thinks a pint (or a non-pint pint) is a creditable topic, so sad really.
The other as pointed out in the article, it helps cripple future metric advancement, retarding the demise by a few more years. The doorstep milk thing is a farce, not sure anyone still gets pints delivered, and in my home area the bottle use was dropped (used the Tetra Pak) sometime in the early 1950’s. Not being woken by bottle rattle was a blessing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brian,
That’s the real sad part about all of this. With Brexit being a total failure and people suffering from economic woes, that someone would waste time and money to care about whether beer and milk are sold in pints. The only reason I can think for this happening is a diversion tactic. It’s meant to divert people’s attention from the real problems. Problems caused by the lovers of Brexit and the biggest lovers of Brexit are the metric haters.
There is no one who can put a law into action that can never be undone. They may think so, but when a new leader comes to rule, they can undo any old law they please even if it is intended to be eternal. Even Trump is undoing some past pardons.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pints of beer are a low rent version of the Roman Empire’s strategy of bread and circuses to maintain power.
Ezra aka punditgi
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do think that to some extent that this particuar issue (along with many others) are a symptom of having an unelected chamber making and scrutinising our laws. It may not necessarily be the case with Lord Fox but many decisions made in this chamber are often coloured by self interest or lack of understanding of the real world.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just wonder how many members at Westminster (both of the Houses) know about …
‘the situation in 1904, when 333 MPs were in favour of fully adopting the metric system for all official purposes. ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Martin Vliestra wrote: “At the moment, I believe that the Irish still use the pint, but they might be persuaded to ditch its use when EU Directive 90/181/EEC comes up for review in 2028/9.”
I believe the Irish do still use the pint. But how is it defined in Ireland? I happen to know that Irish-themed pubs and restaurants in Brussels define it as 50 cl.
LikeLike
I see the pint referred to in the above article as “approximately 568 ml”. That means the pint is in effect already a metric unit, unless it is defined somewhere in law as a multiple or sub-multiple of other legal imperial units. But I don’t believe the latter exist. Another poster wrote that the pint glass is often a 570 ml glass, which is easily divisible into the legal subunits of one-third and two-thirds, or a half. It is simply one of a number of different pint sizes that exist around the world. Of course the latter doesn’t really help the pint drinker, as he or she will more often than not get 500 ml if the ask for a pint. Perhaps that doesn’t bother them. But if you asked for a 500 ml or 250 ml serving, by whatever name they may be locally called, you could be sure of getting what you asked for and believed you would be getting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
he OIML document R138 (https://www.oiml.org/en/files/pdf_r/r138-e07.pdf/view ) lays the Metrological controls should be applied. The details are:
For serving glasses that have a line measure, the maximum allowable tolerance is 5=0.025V millilitres where V is the nominal volume of the glass. For brim measurements, the maximum allowable tolerance is 10+0.05V millilitres. This works out at 19 and 38 ml, respectively. The standard goes on to say that the control devices used by the inspectors must be within one third of the above specification (ie 6 and 13 ml respectively). Therefore, if the manufacturer can keep their glasses to between 560 and 575 ml, they will satisfy the quality control requirements for nominal volumes of both 568 ml and 570 ml.
LikeLiked by 1 person
metricnow,
I don’t understand why so many people have this hang-up about a pint having to be 568 mL and insisting that is what is being served. Ireland’s laws and most other country’s as well that still have a use for pint define the pint for whatever restricted uses there are as 570 mL. The UK and I think Canada are the only two countries of the Commonwealth that define the pint as 568 mL.
Nobody is going to produce glassware to satisfy both the UK’s definition and everyone Else’s definition. They will design the glassware to hold 570 mL and the UK just has to deal with it. So, we should stop referring to this glass size as 568 mL and go with 570 mL.
Per Martin’s posting, OIML’s rules that allow for a 15 mL variation does not change the fact that the glass makers aim for 570 mL as their design size and hopefully they can and do have a variation much less than 15 mL. I for sure would not be happy if I thought I was paying for 570 mL and only got 560 mL. I would hope the glass manufacturer would have 570 mL as the low end and maybe 575 mL as the high.
LikeLike
@Daniel
Actually, even 568 ml doesn’t cut it. According to the Bill, a pint of draught beer is defined in litres to 8 decimal places:
“(5) In this section—
…
a “pint” is equal to 0.56826125 cubic decimetres; “
LikeLiked by 1 person
According to WIkipedia, until 1976, the imperial gallon was defined as the volume of water at 62 °F whose mass is 10 pounds. One cannot measure the mass of a quantity of water in a vaccuum, because sme water will immediately evaporate and fill the vaccuum. One therfore needs to take into account the effect of the loss of weight due to Archimedes Principle. (The density of air is 0.16% that of water). It was subseqeuently defined as 277.419 cubic inches and subsequetly defined as 4.54609 litres. Thus the figure of 0.56826125 cubic decimetres is technically correct, but in practice nobody can measure that accurately (0.00000001 litres is equal to 0.01 cubic millimetres which is much less tan a drip!)
LikeLike
“The public will not be forced to buy a 568ml beverage at the bar or from their local corner shop.”
Good to hear that no one will be “forced to buy” anything if they go into a bar. Bottled beer is still sold in metric of course.
The British pint protected from going metric
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mpx8wx1vvo
LikeLike
Despite all of the hoopla of a pint being 568 mL, the glassware is standard at 570 mL. This is due to the fact the majority of the Commonwealth countries formerly using imperial have retained the pint for some remnant uses like beer and have redefined the pint to be exactly 570 mL. Thus the glassware is now standard at 570 mL. Like it or not, that is the reality.
So anyone who asks for a pint in a glass is getting 570 mL and not 568 mL. Why England can’t compromise and follow the lead of the Commonwealth and define the pint for these remnant uses to be 570 mL makes no sense to me. Filling machines can’t even fill to 568 mL as they can only do so in 10 mL increments and 568 mL is not round to the nearest 10 mL.
LikeLike
@Daniel, I think that we have had this conversation before.
Most countries accept the OIML recommendation R138 as the legal basis for their beer mugs. In short, manufacturers are required to select 35 mugs at random from each batch and measure both the average capacity (μ) and the standard deviation (σ) of that average for the sample taken.
I will not go into details of these readings – you can find them for yourself. The main points coming out of the standard is that for line-level “pint” beer mugs, the average specified level can be 7 ml either way of the nominal level. Thus, if the manufacturer can guarantee that the line on their mugs lies between 563 ml and 575, the mugs can be marketed as “pints” of 568 ml or as “pints” of 570 ml.
The wholesale price of beer mugs is about £1 to £1.50. The tests to make the measurements cost far more that £5 per mug which is why an analysis is only done on a small number of mugs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Martin,
Not all glassware is line marked and not all pubtenders are going to pay attention to the lines when filling. There is no glassware out there that one can buy that you can only fill to 568 mL and not a millilitre more. No matter what tests are done to assure compliance, the manufacturers when designing and making the glassware will shoot for a standard value and that value is a nice round 570 mL, which is what the vast majority of countries define as a pint as opposed to a strange 568.26125 mL value. In fact a rounded 568 mL is technically undersized.
I for one would not want to be that person who is paying for 570 mL and be the unlucky one who gets stuck with a 563 mL fill on more than one occasion.
LikeLike