§ Mr. WilkinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the cost to British traders of the law requiring goods to be sold in metric units. [130267]
§ Mr. Alan Johnson[holding answer 12 July 2000]: A compliance cost assessment was published by the Department of Trade and Industry in 1994, when the legislation was made to require loose goods to be sold in metric weights after 31 December 1999. The main cost for traders was identified as the conversion or replacement of imperial weighing machines. The average cost of conversion was estimated to be £100 per machine. The starting price for replacement was estimated to be £450 per machine. It was further estimated that 80 per cent. of machines were capable of conversion.
§ Mr. WilkinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what the total cost to his Department will be in the financial year 2000–01 of the salaries of the trading standards officers employed by his Department to enforce the law requiring the sale of goods in metric units; [130268]
(2) how many trading standards officers are employed by his Department to enforce the implementation of the law requiring the sale of goods in metric units. [130271]
§ Mr. Alan Johnson[holding answer 12 July 2000]: The Department of Trade and Industry is not responsible for enforcing the use by traders of prescribed units of measurement for the sale of goods. Enforcement is undertaken by the local authorities, as part of their wider responsibility for trading standards. Each authority decides how many staff it will employ on trading standards work, and the allocation of staff time (and therefore of staff costs) between the different areas of enforcement.
§ Mr. WilkinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on(a) the seizure of weighing equipment by trading standards officers of his Department from traders whom 620W they believe to be in breach of the law requiring goods to be sold in metric units and (b) the procedures available to them to obtain the restitution of their property from his Department. [130269]
§ Mr. Alan Johnson[holding answer 12 July 2000]: Weights and measures legislation includes powers for local authority inspectors of weights and measures to seize and detain equipment in circumstances where they believe the equipment is liable to be forfeited. This would apply, for example, to equipment being used without a valid stamp on it, to equipment which is false or unjust, or which was being used in the commission of fraud.
Where prosecution followed, it would be for the courts to determine whether the equipment should be forfeited. Otherwise it would be returned to the owner.