The new Weights & Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006 are due to come into force on 6 April 2006. The new Regulations are currently available in draft form, & are accompanied by draft guidance notes produced by the DTI. The new Regulations place a new duty on packers & importers to ensure that their packages have been made up in line with the requirements of the three packers' rules. This effectively replaces the duty on packers or importers to ensure that their packages pass the reference test. The aim of this change is to make it clearer & simpler for packers & importers to understand their duties. Compliance with the three packers' rules will, where necessary, be determined by appropriate tests including the reference test, but the duty of packers or importers is to pack to, or show that the packages meet, the rules rather than to pass the test. The new Regulations also set out new duties on packers and importers as to the equipment they may use and to the measurements or checks they must make and documentation they must keep. Packers are required to measure or check their packages using equipment that is suitable for the operation for which it is being used. Any equipment that is being used must also comply with any separate legal requirements under measuring instrument legislation that applies to it. Where every package is measured there is no requirement to keep records, but in this case compliance with the packers' rules can be assured only by checking that each package contains at least the stated quantity (that is, by packing to the minimum system). Where the packer chooses to check packages by sampling, the system of sampling and tests must be sufficiently rigorous to ensure that the packages are made up in line with the requirements of the three packers' rules. The packer must also make and keep records of the checks he has made for a year after the packages have left his possession, or for the shelf life of the product, whichever is the shorter. An importer may either check his packages using suitable equipment, and keep records of the checks, or he may obtain before the packages leave his possession sufficient evidence to give reasonable grounds for believing that the packages have been packed in accordance with the three packers' rules and keep the evidence that he has obtained.
