The Weights and Measures Regulations 1963

Passing as fit for use for trade

5.—(1) No weighing or measuring equipment shall be passed as fit for use for trade unless—

(a) subject to paragraph (2) of this regulation, it complies with the appropriate requirements of these Regulations:

Provided that any equipment falling within the prescribed limits of error which was first stamped prior to the 1st January 1908 may be passed as fit for use for trade until the expiration of the period of five years beginning with the date of the coming into operation of these Regulations notwithstanding that it fails to comply with the appropriate requirements of these Regulations: and

(b) in the case of—

(i) a dry capacity measure with more than one purported value in terms of units of capacity measurement and commonly known as a double measure;

(ii) weighing or measuring equipment presenting any novel feature;

(iii) a weighing instrument with removable hooks (other than the hooks or bearings of swan-neck beams, or the hooks at the end of the steelyard indicators on weighing instruments constructed on the compound lever principle);

(iv) a counter machine with sliding counterpoises;

(v) a steelyard which is of the reversible type and has three hooks, or is constructed on the accelerating weighing instrument principle, or is of the counter type, or is constructed without a zero graduation, or has a capacity of less than 56 pounds;

(vi) a price computing weighing instrument;

it is made in accordance with a pattern in respect of which a certificate of approval granted or deemed to have been granted under section 12 of the Weights and Measures Act 1963 is in force, or with such a pattern modified in accordance with an authorisation for the time being in force under the said section 12;

(c) in the case of a weight or a capacity measure, it is not marked with an indication of its purported value in units of both the imperial system and the metric system;

(d) it is sufficiently strong to withstand the wear and tear of ordinary use in trade.

(2) Nothing in paragraph (1)(a) of this regulation shall prohibit the passing as fit for use for trade of any avoirdupois weight of the bell type which was first stamped prior to the 1st January 1954 and which falls within the prescribed limits of error.