HC Deb 04 April 2000 vol 347 cc404-5W
Mr. Robertson

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to issue a statement informing retailers of the legal requirements regarding the sale of goods in imperial and metric measures; and if he will make a statement. [117660]

Dr. Howells

Under legislation made in 1994, goods sold loose by weight—mainly fresh foods—have been required to be priced and weighed in grams and kilograms from I January 2000.

The Government have publicised this in a number of ways:

  1. (i) holding roadshows for local authority trading standards officers and providing stocks of DTI leaflets for use in the local authority education programme for retailers
  2. (ii) a publicity campaign in the summer of 1999 consisting of the issue of free leaflets for traders and consumers and wall charts showing weight comparisons
  3. (iii) the placing of advertisements in the trade press in the period just before Christmas 1999 aimed largely at small retailers

In total over 275,000 "selling metric" retailer leaflets (including over 6,000 in languages other than English), over 860,000 "shopping metric" consumer leaflets (including 30,000 in languages other than English) and over 140,000 wallcharts have been issued. In addition information is available in Braille and audio form.