Written question asked by Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 8 February 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 February 2007. It was answered by Ian McCartney (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 February 2007 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

EC Law: Exceptions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the UK is seeking an extension of the exceptions to EU Council Directive 80/181 beyond 2009 (a) in respect of (i) road traffic signs, (ii) distance and speed measurements, (iii) draught beer, cider and milk, (iv) land registration and (v) precious metals and (b) in respect of the printing of imperial measurements alongside metric measurements.

Answer: The European Commission has recently published a consultation on proposed changes to the Units of Measurement Directive (80/181/EEC), and in particular on whether the use of non metric units as supplementary indications alongside metric measurements should continue to be permitted after 31 December 2009. The Government believe that the continued use of supplementary indications is necessary to allow for the dual labelling of products placed on both metric and non-metric markets. They therefore intend to express support for the continued use of supplementary indications after 2009 for an indefinite period.In its paper the Commission also seeks the views of market operators on the operation of derogations for imperial units for specific purposes. These are the mile for road traffic signs, distance and speed measurements, the pint for the dispense of draught beer and cider and milk in returnable containers, the acre for land registration and the troy ounce for transactions in precious metals. The Government have no plans to end these derogations and there is no end date set out in Directive 80/181/EEC. The Government’s view, which it will be expressing to the Commission, is that as these derogations have no adverse effect on trade between member states their future use should be determined by the individual member states that make use of them.

Secondary information