The Weights and Measures (Specified Quantities) (Unwrapped Bread and Intoxicating Liquor) Order 2011

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order makes provision in respect of the quantities (“specified quantities”) in which beer, cider and wine sold in the glass from which it is to be drunk. It makes related provision in respect of capacity measures and quantity indications. In addition, the Order removes specified quantities relating to unwrapped loaves of bread, subject in certain cases to quantity indication requirements.

Article 4 amends the Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order 1988 so as to permit retail sales of 2/3 pint of draught beer or cider, to permit wines (other than fortified wines) sold in a quantity of less than 75 ml to be sold in any quantity without quantity indications and to provide for the sale of fortified wines only in specified quantities of 50 ml or 70 ml or a multiple of either of those quantities with quantity indications.

Articles 2 and 5 make related amendments to Schedule 3 to the Weights and Measures Act 1985 and to Schedule 3 to the Measuring Instruments (Capacity Serving Measures) Regulations 2006 (“the 2006 Regulations”) to permit the use for trade of capacity measures of 2/3 pint and to ensure that the 2006 Regulations, which regulate the placing on the market, putting into use and use for trade of capacity serving measures, apply to 2/3 pint measures.

Article 3 amends article 6 of the Weights and Measures (Miscellaneous Foods) Order 1988 (“the 1988 Order”) so as to remove specified quantities relating to unwrapped loaves of bread and to introduce quantity indication requirements applicable to such loaves, when weighing more than 300 g and sold otherwise than in traditional quantities (400 g or a multiple) or in bulk. In addition, it revokes now redundant exemptions from specified quantities relating to unwrapped loaves of bread in Schedule 1 to the 1988 Order.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the National Measurement Office, Stanton Avenue, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11OJZ. An updated version of the Combined Nomenclature is published as a Commission Regulation every year. The 2011 Combined Nomenclature is published as Commission Regulation (EC) No 861/2010 in the Official Journal of the European Union OJ No L 284, 29.10.2010, p1 and is available from HM Revenue & Customs on www.uktradeinfo.com/news.

These Regulations were notified in draft to the European Commission in accordance with Directive 98/34EC, as amended by Directive 98/48/EC.