The Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006
| Year | 2006 |
2006 No. 659
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
The Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006
Made 13th March 2006
Laid before Parliament 14th March 2006
Coming into force 6th April 2006
The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 15(1) and 86 of the Weights and Measures Act 19851and section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 19722makes the following Regulations.
In accordance with section 86(2)(b) of the Weights and Measures Act 1985, the Secretary of State has consulted such organisations as appear to him to be representative of interests substantially affected by these Regulations.
The Secretary of State is a Minister designated3for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 in relation to the regulation, labelling and control of packages and products made up to a pre-determined constant nominal quantity.
Citation, commencement, revocation and extent
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006 and shall come into force on 6th April 2006.
(2) The enactments listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 are repealed or revoked, and the enactments listed in Part 2 of Schedule 1 are amended, to the extent there specified.
(3) These Regulations do not extend to Northern Ireland.
Interpretation
2. In these Regulations—
“batch” means a group of packages selected in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 2 for the purposes of conducting a reference test;
“bread” means bread in the form of single loaves (whether or not sliced);
“cosmetic product” has the meaning given by regulation 3 of the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 20044;
“credentials”, in relation to an inspector, means written authority, given by the local weights and measures authority who appointed him, for the inspector to exercise the powers conferred on inspectors by these Regulations;
“the E-mark” means a letter `e', at least 3 mm high, having the form shown in Schedule 4;
“importer” means, in relation to a package or outer container, the person by whom, or on whose behalf, the package or outer container is brought into the United Kingdom;
“inspector” means an inspector of weights and measures appointed under section 72(1) of the 1985 Act;
“knitting yarn” means knitting yarn consisting of natural fibres (whether animal, vegetable or mineral), chemical fibres, or a mixture of such fibres;
“local weights and measures authority” has the same meaning as in section 69 of the 1985 Act;
“Member State” means a member State, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein;
“negative error” means the quantity by which the contents of a package are less than the nominal quantity;
“nominal quantity” means the weight or volume marked on or in respect of a package pursuant to regulation 5(1)(a) or 6(1)(a), or entered in a record made under regulation 5(2) or 6(2);
“outer container” means a container which contains two or more items, at least one of which is a package to which these Regulations apply, provided that:
(a) the items were placed in the container without the purchaser being present;
(b) the items cannot be removed from the container without the container being opened or undergoing a perceptible modification; and
(c) the container is intended, or would normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer as the outermost layer of packaging;
“package” means the combination of a product and the individual package in which it is packed, provided that:
(a) the product is placed in the package without the purchaser being present; and
(b) except in the case of knitting yarn, the quantity of the product in the package cannot be altered without the package being opened or undergoing a perceptible modification;
“packer” means the person who placed the product in the package or the packages in the outer container;
“reference test” means the tests set out in Schedule 2;
“the 1985 Act” means the Weights and Measures Act 1985;
“the 1986 Regulations” means the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 19865;
“tolerable negative error” means the amount set out in the table in Schedule 3 in relation to the nominal quantity of the package.
Scope of application
3.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (6), these Regulations apply to:
(a)
(a) packages intended for sale in constant unit nominal quantities which are:
(i) equal to values predetermined by the packer;
(ii) expressed in units of weight or volume; and
(iii) of not less than 5 grams or 5 millilitres and not more than 25 kilograms or 25 litres;
(b)
(b) outer containers.
(2) These Regulations also apply to bread which is sold either unwrapped or in open packets if:
(i)
(i) it has been made up to a pre-determined constant quantity; and
(ii)
(ii) it is intended for sale in constant unit nominal quantities expressed in units of weight, which are not less than 300 grams per loaf and not more than 10 kilograms per loaf.
(3) Schedule 5 sets out modifications in the application of these Regulations to bread.
(4) These Regulations do not apply to packages which are not marked with the E-mark and which:
(a)
(a) contain a product which is intended solely for use in, or in connection with, a process or treatment in the course of a trade or business;
(b)
(b) contain a product which is:
(i) intended, and which would normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer; and
(ii) made up in quantities of less than 5 grams or 5 millilitres;
where the packages are not intended, or would not normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer;
(c)
(c) contain a single application of a cosmetic product;
(d)
(d) are intended for despatch outside the United Kingdom;
(e)
(e) are intended for use by Her Majesty’s forces or by a visiting force within the meaning of any of the provisions of Part I of the Visiting Forces Act 19526;
(f)
(f) are intended for use as stores within the meaning of the Customs and Excise Management Act 19797in a ship, aircraft or hovercraft on a voyage or flight to an eventual destination outside Great Britain; or
(g)
(g) contain a product listed in Schedule 6 in a quantity less than the predetermined constant quantity there shown against that product.
(5) Regulations 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 shall not apply to a package or an outer container which has been:
(a)
(a) packed in, or imported into, a Member State other than the United Kingdom;
(b)
(b) marked with the E-mark in accordance with the law of that Member State; and
(c)
(c) marked with the name and address of the person in that Member State who packed or imported the package or outer container, or who arranged for the package or outer container to be packed,
if, after the package or outer container has left that Member State, at least one of the following conditions is satisfied in relation to it:
(a)
(a) it has not entered a country which is not a Member State;
(b)
(b) it has been sealed at all times in a container bearing a customs seal;
(c)
(c) there has been no reasonable opportunity for any person to alter the quantity of the product contained within it.
(6) These Regulations do not apply to:
(a)
(a) a package of frozen or quick frozen poultry meat which is classified by weight category in accordance with Article 3(3) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1906/908;
(b)
(b) a package containing a product listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No. 2200/969.
Duty to comply with the three packers' rules
4.—(1) It shall be the duty of the packer or importer of packages to ensure that they are made up in such a way as to satisfy the following rules—
(a)
(a) the contents of the packages shall be not less on average than the nominal quantity;
(b)
(b) the proportion of packages having a negative error greater than the tolerable negative error shall be sufficiently small for batches of packages to satisfy the requirements specified in Schedule 2;
(c)
(c) no package shall have a negative error greater than twice the tolerable negative error.
(2) Compliance with the rules in paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) shall be determined by the reference test.
Duty of packers and importers to mark packages
5.—(1) It shall be the duty of the packer or the importer of a package to ensure that the package is marked, in such a manner as to be indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation, with the following—
(a)
(a) the nominal quantity, being the predetermined constant quantity in which that package is made up (including any additional quantity to which any statement on the package refers) in accordance with regulation 8; and
(b)
(b) the name and address of a person established in the United Kingdom who is either—
(i) the packer or the importer of the package, or
(ii) the person who arranged for the packer to make up, or the importer to import, the package,
or a mark which enables the name and address of such a person to be readily ascertained by his local weights and measures authority.
(2) If at the time when a package is made up or imported the package is not marked with the nominal quantity as mentioned in paragraph (1)(a), it shall be the duty of the packer or the importer of the package—
(a)
(a) to decide what he proposes to mark on the package in pursuance of that sub-paragraph, and
(b)
(b) to make at that time, and to maintain until such time as the package is so marked, a record of the same.
(3) A packer or importer may mark a package which—
(a)
(a) is made up to comply with the requirements in regulation 4; and
(b)
(b) has a nominal quantity not exceeding 10 kilograms or 10 litres,
with the E-mark, in which case the mark shall be indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation and be placed in the same field of vision as the indication of nominal quantity required by paragraph...
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