Mr. Robert G. HughesTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on the future status of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory.
§ Mr. ForthToday the National Weights and Measures Laboratory has been established as a next steps agency. The laboratory is responsible for ensuring that the measurement aspects of retail and wholesale trade are accurate and fair through its work to approve designs of equipment such as scales, petrol pumps and weighbridges. It will play an important role as the EC becomes a single market in 1992.
As an agency, the NWML will have increased financial and management freedoms to enable it to operate more effectively and efficiently. The change to agency status will give Dr. Peter Clapham, the chief executive, and the laboratory greater freedom to meet the challenges arising from the rapid development of technology as well as from the single European market.
The NWML remains part of the DTI and its 50 employees will continue to be civil servants. It will continue to serve both local authority customers and industry, as well as advising on technical matters relating to measurement and trade.
Details are set out in the laboratory's policy and resources framework document, copies of which have been placed in the Libraries of the House.