Weights and Measures in the UK 2024

Every year all weights and measures authorities (Trading Standards departments / TS) are required to return certain information to the Government on what work they have been doing for weights and measures over the past year. It is a useful tool for us to see what work is, or is not going on.

I previously did an article comparing 2022 to the past. You can and should read that post first as I will be referencing it, and it contains more explanation – http://tradingstandardsblog.co.uk/the-state-of-weights-and-measures-in-the-uk-in-2023

You can see the Government data at this website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/section-70-weights-and-measures-returns-and-reports

The Government tend to put a positive spin on things and ignore the negatives.

Let’s have a look for 2023-2024.

All weights and measures authorities responded – 189 responses in total.

Fuel pumps (this is individual pumps, not forecourts)

10628 pumps tested across the country – in 2022 it was 7781 so the number has gone up slightly but what is important is the spread across the country (see below).

96 tested 0 fuel pumps – so more than half of the TS in the country did no testing at all.

116 tested 10 fuel pumps or less

126 tested 20 fuel pumps or less. Think about the fact most forecourt at a supermarket could easily have 42 or 48 pumps on it. The majority of TS are not even testing the equivalent of one forecourt.

24 departments tested more than 100 pumps – so I’d say these are the ones that at least try and do some form of work on a regular basis.

The top ones were:

Aberdeen City Council	535
Aberdeenshire Council	365
East Riding of Yorkshire Council	464
North Ayrshire Council	415
Pembrokeshire County Council	451
South Lanarkshire Council	503
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council	339
West Yorkshire County Council	706
Westmorland and Furness Council	322
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council	672

West Yorkshire tested 706 fuel pumps and found 51 out of tolerance. The remaining top 10 generally found fewer than 5 out of tolerance.

Weighbridges (large scales)

93 tested 0 weighbridges.

It should be said that not all TS will have a weighbridge in their area.

Scales under 30kg – this includes standard retail scales

6676 tested across the country – in 2022 it was 3546 so the number has almost doubled but again the issue is whether that spread is across the country.

51 tested 0 scales – this is completely unacceptable as it should be a basic task of a TS department to check some scales. Last time it was 177 that had not tested a scale, so at least that number is improving.

134 tested fewer than 30 – bear in mind you can check 30 scales in one day in one supermarket. That is 70%…in 2022 it was 82% so the situation is getting worse.

The top ones were:

Aberdeenshire Council	280
Carmarthenshire County Council	163
City of Stoke-on-Trent	191
Derby City Council	241
East Riding of Yorkshire Council	217
Glasgow City Council	508
Midlothian Council	188
North Ayrshire Council	320
Thurrock Council	197
West Yorkshire County Council	222

West Yorkshire test 222 and found 58 out of tolerance. Aberdeenshire tested 280 and found 30 out of tolerance. Generally speaking, it can be seen scales were found to be more non-compliant than fuel pumps.

Alcohol measuring instruments

These are things like spirit optics, thimbles, glasses etc

89 tested 0 instruments.

134 tested fewer than 70 instrument (a few pubs worth)

Bridgend, Cardiff & Vale of Glamorgan Councils	1707
Caerphilly County Borough Council	834
Cheshire East Council	729
City of Edinburgh Council	863
East Ayrshire Council	1055
East Riding of Yorkshire Council	4384
Glasgow City Council	1018
Milton Keynes Council	818
West Sussex County Council	705
West Yorkshire County Council	1361

West Yorkshire tested 1361 and found 71 out of tolerance. Bridgend tested 1707 and found 43 out of tolerance. The remaining TS generally found low levels of non-compliance.

Retail Inspections

47 TS did 0 retail inspections. In 2022 the number was 83 so there has been some improvement.

Total number of retail inspections was 8137. In 2022 it was 3966.

Overall, we are seeing an uptake from 2022 which I suspect is due to recovery after COVID but the overall numbers are really poor. It shows that weights and measures checks are not being done in large parts of the country and even where they are being done, not being done enough,

Inspectors – Qualified

The number of councils with no inspectors is 9. In 2022 it was 6.

69 TS have at least one person studying to become an Inspector. That is promising and likely caused by the fact that qualification is now mandatory as part of the wider TS qualification framework.

In 1995 we had 1652 inspectors. In 2023 we have 783 – around 53% fewer. It should also be noted that many of the current 783 will not be competent or not actually carrying out day to day metrology work as they will be managers or working in other areas. A large number will also be people who are close to retirement. Finally, a good number were forced to do weights and measures as part of the qualification and won’t want to/be competent to do the work.

I imagine the true number of competent Inspectors doing actual work is something like 200-250.

Inspectors – Full time equivalents

95 TS have 0.5 FTE engaged in weights and measures work. This means half the TS in the country have someone only have someone working part time doing weights and measures work. That is pretty poor.

Councils with no Inspectors

• Blackpool Council
• Denbighshire County Council
• Leicester City Council
• London Borough of Ealing
• London Borough of Lambeth
• London Borough of Lewisham
• London Borough of Newham
• London Borough of Waltham Forest
• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Trading Standards that did no inspections or visits in 2023-2024

• Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Blackpool Council
• Brighton & Hove City Council
• Denbighshire County Council
• Leicester City Council
• London Borough of Barnet
• London Borough of Bexley
• London Borough of Ealing
• London Borough of Enfield
• London Borough of Lambeth
• London Borough of Lewisham
• Luton Borough Council
• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
• Swindon Borough Council
• Wigan Council

It should be noted that there are some TS that didn’t make it onto this list as they have literally visited 1 premise.

Summary: There are some minor improvements since 2022 but the overall picture is pretty dire with some weights and measures deserts around the country. Even the ones doing some weights and measures are only doing a very limited amount of work – for example we tested 6676 small scales – but how many of them are there in the country – most likely over 100,000.

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