Yesterday, the UK Weighing Federation (UKWF) issued a briefing on the regulation of the UK weighing industry and the Retained EU Law Bill. This briefing emphasised the key role of weights and measures in all areas of industry and consumers’ everyday lives and also explained the serious consequences of lowering or complete removal of current regulatory standards.
Continue reading “UKWF issues warning about risks of REUL Bill”Category: Consumer affairs
Why do so few Britons use kg for body weight?
Britons tend to use grams and kilograms for a lot of things, including cooking recipes, gym equipment, commercial products and retail sales. However, they predominantly use stones and pounds for weighing adults and children and use pounds and ounces for weighing babies. Few use kg despite the fact that the NHS uses kg internally for body weight and BMI calculated by body weight in kg divided by height in metres squared. And despite the large number of everyday basic food products you can find in supermarkets that come in 1 kg packages.
Continue reading “Why do so few Britons use kg for body weight?”BEIS cannot tell us effects of scrapping all EU laws
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liz Truss and current PM Rishi Sunak have expressed their commitment to scrap all EU laws. The Government is committed to implementing this policy by pushing the Retained EU Law Bill through Parliament. It is reasonable to challenge the Government about the effects of this policy and to ask what would happen if all EU laws disappeared from the British statute book. I asked the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) this question but they could not answer my question.
Continue reading “BEIS cannot tell us effects of scrapping all EU laws”UKMA’s response to the REUL Bill Select Committee
Yesterday, in the House of Lords, the Delegated Powers & Regulatory Reform Committee published its report on the Government’s Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
The Bill, which is due to have its second reading in the House of Lords on Monday 6 February, is designed to hand power from Parliament to Government Ministers, who will then decide the fate of up to 4000 laws.
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How to fix the main problems with the REUL Bill
The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill has many serious problems. In its current form, it represents a huge power grab by the Executive. It sunsets all EU-derived laws at the end of this year unless a Minister acts to save them. Only Ministers will decide which laws are retained, which ones are amended and which ones are scrapped without parliamentary oversight and scrutiny. Affected stakeholders are excluded from the process. There is less than one year to review approximately 4000 laws and decide what to do with them. The rush to scrap or amend laws is bound to lead to mistakes, omissions and contradictions. There are ways to fix the problems with the REUL Bill.
Continue reading “How to fix the main problems with the REUL Bill”Public opinion opposes aims of REUL Bill
The i newspaper recently published a poll about attitudes to the EU. The poll reveals that rejoining the EU is slightly more popular than staying out of the EU and a lot more prefer a closer relationship to the EU to boost trade with the bloc. Both of these preferences are incompatible with the aims of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. While UKMA has no position on British membership of the EU or on the UK-EU relationship, UKMA opposes the REUL Bill because it threatens a lot of existing weights and measures legislation. REUL aims to scrap or reform all EU-derived laws by the 31 December 2023 deadline, when they expire by default if nothing is done.
Continue reading “Public opinion opposes aims of REUL Bill”UKMA is proud to join the Safeguarding our Standards coalition
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) established the Safeguarding our Standards (SOS) campaign in response to the Government’s proposed Retained EU Law Bill (REUL Bill). The Bill threatens food safety, product safety, animal health and welfare, fair trading, legal metrology and protection against scams and rogue traders. UKMA is concerned about the Bill’s threats to weights and measures legislation, which could undo many years of metrication progress. Last month, CTSI invited UKMA to join the Safeguarding our Standards coalition and UKMA agreed to join. SOS comprises a coalition of organisations and individuals with an interest in maintaining the protections that the people of the United Kingdom have benefited from for years.
Continue reading “UKMA is proud to join the Safeguarding our Standards coalition”How imperial units survey design flaws could have been fixed
The Government ran the “Choice on units of measurement: markings and sales” consultation from 3 June 2022 to 26 August 2022. The survey that accompanied the consultation received over 100 000 responses. According to Government guidelines (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance), a response should have been published by 18 November, 12 weeks after the closing date. This article explains what was wrong with the survey questions and how the survey could have been improved.
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Metric Views 