Weights and measures

The need for accurate and standardised measures to allow fair trading extends back to ancient Egypt and the inspectors appointed under King Edward III in 1340 form the historical basis of our Trading Standards service. Today officers enforce a complex set of legislation and maintain over forty sets of testing equipment to ensure that your money buys its ‘money’s worth’ in any transactions involving measurement of length, liquid, or weight.

As an example, when you fill up your car with 20 litres of fuel the pump must legally be within 100ml of the stated amount sold, or put another way within just four 25ml ‘optic’ pub measures of alcohol, which is also another regulated legal measurement! Nearly every set of packaged goods from cola to coal must be within precise limits of error before they can be supplied to Nottinghamshire residents.

One surprising fact is that overweighing is also checked for and can be vital in transactions involving healthy alcohol and food portion control, medical weighing for dispensing medicines and postal delivery charges. Our inspectors not only ensure the accuracy of vehicle ‘weighbridges’ so that road and environment damaging overweight vehicles are stopped before reaching Nottinghamshire’s roads, they also do the same for trains, being one of only a handful of bodies trusted in the UK to verify the accuracy of weighing trains whilst they are in motion. 

If you suspect a trader has got inaccurate or faulty weighing or measuring equipment, please contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.

If you are a trader and want advice about the use of weighing and measuring equipment, please contact tss@nottscc.gov.uk.