Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Monson (Crossbench). It was answered on Monday, 27 November 2006.

EU: Non-metric Terms

Question: My Lords, I declare an interest as a patron of the BWMA. Is the Minister aware that, unless something is done, in just over three years it will be illegal to sell not only the shirt with a 15 and a half-inch collar to which the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, referred, but a pair of size 9 shoes? It will be illegal to advertise a car that does 50 miles to the gallon or an executive jet that cruises at 30,000 feet above the weather. Moreover, what will happen about bicycles? The Minister may not be aware, but they are sold with 26 or 28-inch wheels all over Europe, not merely in the United Kingdom.

Answer: My Lords, as I said, the Commission is looking at that. We have already had two reviews that have extended the use of dual labelling, and we may well have further extensions or a permanent derogation of the scheme, so I do not think that the noble Lord’s fears are justified. After all, we still use the mile, the yard, the foot, the inch, the pint, the troy ounce, the acre and other imperial measurements, so perhaps he is being too doom-laden in his warnings.

Secondary information