HL Deb 18 November 1976 vol 377 cc1582-3

[Nos. 13 to 15.]

Schedule 1, page 13, line 4, at end insert—

Schedule 2, page 14, line 40, at end insert:

"3. Measures of—

any multiple of 10 litres 100 millilitres
10 litres 50 millilitres
5 litres 25 millilitres
2.5 litres 20 millilitres
2 litres 10 millilitres
1 litre 5 millilitres
500 millilitres 2 millilitres
250 millilitres 1 millilitre.
200 millilitres

Page 16, line 19, column 1, at end insert "25 kilogrammes".

Lord ORAM

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 13 to 15 en bloc. These are technical Amendments. Amendment No. 13 adds the litre and its compounds to those units of volume which Schedule 1A lists as lawful for use for trade. Amendment No. 14 authorises the use for trade of certain specified litre measures. Amendment No. 15 adds the 25 kilogramme weight to those weights which may be used for trade. The addition of this weight has been requested by the wholesale fruit and vegetable trade and the retail solid fuel trade.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendments.—(Lord Oram.)

Lord MONSON

My Lords, I should like to put one question to the noble Lord, Lord Oram. The fundamental purpose of this legislation is presumably to harmonise British practice with that prevailing in other EEC countries. Why, therefore, have the centilitre and the decilitre not been included? Anybody who has spent any length of time on the Continent will know that no Frenchman, for example, would ever in everyday life use the term "two hundred millilitres", a unit of measurement listed at the bottom of the first column of Amendment No. 14. He would in practice be infinitely more likely to use "20 centilitres" or "2 decilitres".

Lord ORAM

My Lords, to start with, I would disagree with the noble Lord that a main purpose of this legislation is to conform with EEC requirements. I explained on many occasions during earlier stages that this was a programme upon Which we wished to embark because we believed that it was right for Britain, but that in consequence we would wish to see that the legislation we passed was in harmony with the EEC requirements, and that has been taken account of several times. On the more detailed points about the decilitre, and so on, I am not in a position to give the exact reason at this moment. I hope that that fact does not mean that the noble Lord would want to delay proceedings. If I may, I will write to him with an explanation.

Lord MONSON

I am grateful to the noble Lord.

Lord SOMERS

My Lords, before we leave this subject, I should like to point out to the noble Lord that the use of centimetre would in no wise be in contradiction to the Continental system, the European system, since the centimetre is a perfectly obvious part of a metre, and incidentally a very useful one, and at present in use in the measurement of engine capacity of cars is the cubic centimetre.

Lord ORAM

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that intervention.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

COMMONS AMENDMENTS

[Nos. 16 to 22.]

After Schedule 2, insert the following new Schedule:

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