§ Mr. Youngerasked the Minister of Technology, whether he will now set a definite date by which industry should complete its transfer to the metric system, so that plans can be made within a known time scale.
§ Mr. BennIt is not the Government's function to impose a final date for metrication in industry as a whole but to support each industrial sector in carrying out the conversion programme and time-scale which it adopts for itself as being most appropriate to its needs and resources. These programmes are devised after extensive consultation, through the co-ordinating machinery of the British Standards Institution. That for the construction industry was published last year. The programme for the general engineering sector is in the last stages of consultation and should be published shortly, followed later in the year by those of the electrical and shipbuilding industries. It is still the assumption of both Government and industry that the metric system will become the primary system used in industry by 1975.