November 2009.

At times there often seem to be a number of issues that could affect our industry - the rules we operate under, the legislation we and our customers must meet, proposed legislation changes - that its often difficult to keep track of what's happening in each instance. And, because sometimes progress is - to be kind- not as rapid as it would be in industry it's easy to forget that a particular thing is happening at all.

So, as an aide memoire and brief explanation the Federation has put together a list of current topics, briefly describing each one and saying where we are. If you find it useful let us know, and if there is demand we will update it regularly, say on a quarterly of half yearly basis.

Comments please to John Anthony or Denise McGregor at the Federation Office.

Prescribed Quantities

The legislation requiring packers to pre-pack many items, (tea, sugar coffee, butter etc, etc) only in defined prescribed quantities was abolished from 11 April 2009 as a result of the implementation of Directive 2007/45/EC. From that date packers have been free to select what in what quantity they make up their packages provided that the consumer is told what the quantity is.

Pre-packed Bread was among those items that were freed up from being made in a specified quantity but unwrapped bread was not. It must still be made in specified quantities, i.e. 400g, 800g or a multiple of 400g. To remove the conflict between pre-packed and unwrapped bread the Government is proposing to amend the legislation to remove the requirement for unwrapped bread to be in a specified quantity. Bakers who want to make bread in sizes other than the "standard loaf" (400g or 800g) will be required to notify consumers of the quantity in some meaningful way. Expect this change to come into effect in April 2010.

Members who make weighing equipment specifically for the baking industry are advised to keep close to their customers on this topic.

Batteries and Accumulators Regulations

 Do you make batteries or import equipment containing batteries into the UK? If you do you are regarded under these Regulations as a "Producer" and you have obligations to register with either with the appropriate environment agency or an "approved" scheme, depending upon whether you "produce" so called portable batteries, industrial batteries or automotive batteries. The deadlines for registration were mid-October but if you missed them and do need to register you should do so as soon as possible.

If you are not a Producer, but maybe you supply batteries as a consumable item to your customers you are still impacted by the legislation. You may well fall under the definition of "Distributor" and end up with an obligation to take back, free of charge, waste batteries from your customers.

There is more information on the UKWF web-site in a brief overview article, and in copies of the presentation on this topic given at the October AGM. However for the full picture you should obtain the Government Guidance Notes which can be downloaded from links given in the overview article.

The final report from LACORS on accuracy, integrity and appropriateness of equipment being used for weighing patients in hospitals was published in July this year. It showed limited improvement over the position reported on at the interim stage in September/October last year. There is no sign yet of a new Department of Health Alert on Medical Weighing, but we are working with LACORS and TSI to see if we can push them into issuing something to clarify and clear up the confusion they caused.

NAWI and MID Review

The European Commission is currently conducting a review of the NAWI and Measuring Instruments Directive. Many of the changes they are considering arise from what is called the "New Legal Framework". This is an exercise to identify differences in interpretation and implementation of new approach Directives such as NAWI and MID and then get them into much closer agreement. There are a couple of major issues that could seriously impact on the industry.

MID. The commission is proposing that all the technical documentation relating to an instrument - including documents such as service manuals, user manuals - must be available in the official languages of the each EC Member State where the product is sold. CECIP met with the commission on this matter and its fair to say that thy were taken aback by the amount of documentation that would need to be translated; nevertheless the proposal still stands at the moment.

MID and NAWI. CECIP campaigned for a change in the interpretation of the term manufacturer to recognise that in our industry at least it is quite common for someone to source, indicators from one supplier, load cells from another, software from a third and so on and then assemble all these components into a weighing instrument. The Commission still hold the view that only the holder of the Type Approval Certificate can be the manufacturer, so in the case above if the manufacturer of the indicators has a TAC allowing the use of various load cells, various software etc he is the "manufacturer" of the instrument put together by the assembler. This one will run and run.

Also under the proposal any Type Approval Certificate that was based on a manufacturer following a harmonised European Standard or Normative Document will be deemed to expire should a new version of the standard or Normative Document come into force. When challenged the Commission view was that this is not onerous on manufacturers as they will have at least 18 months notice of new Standards or Normative Documents coming into effect which gives them plenty of time to update their products. Again CECIP is challenging this.

NAWI

The Commission has indicated that it is giving serious thought to bringing Non-Automatic Weighing Instruments (NAWI) under the scope of the Measuring Instruments Directive (MID). Whilst at first glance this might seem sensible, it could have a big impact on us here in the UK. Under the NAWI Directive there are 6 categories of controlled applications, i.e. applications where the user must use a NAWI that is both type approved and verified. Under the MID there are no such things as controlled applications, the Directive merely says Member States can for any application choose for themselves whether to require the use of instruments that comply with the Directive or have no rules at all.

You may recall that on at least two occasions in the past the Government of the day has attempted to deregulate NAWI used for "business to business" transactions but has been prevented from doing so by the NAWI Directive. If NAWI are brought under the MID then that protection would vanish and deregulation could follow. The impact on manufacturers, distributors and sellers of industrial weighing equipment could be very significant indeed.