The Wide Ranging
Roles of Local
Authorities
Co-ordination of
the Change in
Local Government
Construction
Responsibilities
of Local
Authorities
The role of central and local government
Department. Individual Departments are developing their own training
arrangements appropriate to the needs they foresee.
The principal role of local authorities in relation to metrication is
as buyers of goods and services on a large scale. Local authorities
spend in total more than £5,000 million per annum, more than 30%
of total public expenditure. It is therefore essential that the procurement
policy of local authorities, in common with the procurement policy
of central government, should promote the progress of metrication.
The services for which local authorities are responsible are many and
varied, including planning, highways, housing, education, police, fire and
the personal social services. All these will be affected by metrication. The
responsibility of local authorities for weights and measures inspection and
the enforcement of statutory provisions is particularly relevant to the
change in industry and distribution. Local authorities also have to make
adequate provision for the training of their own officers so that local
services will be able to make the change-over efficiently. The timing of
the change will vary from service to service within local government.
The main problem is one of co-ordination. There are at present over 1200
separate authorities in England alone. Although the projected
reorganisation of local government should greatly simplify this structure,
the key decisions on metrication and most of the programme of change
itself will already have been implemented before reorganisation has
taken effect.
Two factors, however, greatly reduce the intricacy of the problem. Each
type of authority is represented by its own association and we are in
touch with these associations. Moreover, although all local authorities
have a considerable measure of independence, they are subject to a
number of central government controls and influences. The two most
significant are the approval required for borrowing money for capital
projects and the issue of departmental circulars. The need to obtain
approval for borrowing enables Government Departments to ensure that
local authority projects keep in line with Government policy. Through the
issue of circulars, Government Departments give guidance and advice on
such matters as departmental policies and on timetables for implementing
the change to the metric system. As a result there is a much greater measure
of coherence than would appear. On the other hand a comprehensive local
government metrication programme would not be a sensible objective
because of the variety of local government activities and their frequent
overlapping with those of industry and commerce. The paragraphs which
follow describe the present general position on metrication in some of the
more important local government activities and services.
Local authorities are responsible for a major part of public authority
construction, notably housing, schools and roads. Each Department
concerned with local government construction projects has laid down a
timetable for the change to metric, to which local authorities must adhere
in order to obtain financial approval to carry out their projects. As a
result of this policy, the change to metric in local government construction
is already under way. Of projects which entered the design stage in 1969,
nearly 30% of housing schemes and about 58% of schemes on principal
roads were expected to be in metric quantities. The available figures on
major educational schemes suggest that the change is slower here, while
still according with the general programme.
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government has produced, as a basis
for consultation with local authorities and others, a draft of revised
(metric) Building Regulations. The Scottish Development Department
will shortly put in hand the formal procedure for amending its Regulations.
The role of central and local government
Both Departments have given guidance to local authorities on procedures
to be adopted until agreed new regulations are brought into effect.
We referred earlier (paragraphs 5.8 and 5.9) to the consideration the
Ministry of Transport is giving to the problem of converting road signs.
Local authorities will have a substantial part to play in making the
necessary changes.
The school health service will have a particular problem in arranging for
the conversion, adaptation or replacement of weighing machines and
measuring rules used in the inspection of schoolchildren. As metrication
reaches the retail sector, public health inspectors will be involved in
relation to food and drugs legislation because of their responsibilities for
consumer protection.
Weights and
Measures
Inspectorate
Local health and welfare authorities are in touch with elderly and
handicapped people and with voluntary organisations which are concerned
with the interests of such people. They will need to ensure that their staff
are ready to deal with the problems of metrication for these groups and
will wish to invite the voluntary organisations to consider how those
whose interests they seek to protect could best be helped. This will only
be timely, however, when metrication on a significant scale enters into
day-to-day life.
In the police and fire services accuracy and reliability are crucial, in the
one case because of the need for maximum efficiency and safety in
fire-fighting, and in the other because of the possibility that measurements
of one sort or another may be a vital factor in evidence given in court.
Careful attention will need to be given to the replacement or adaptation
of equipment. Staff training will also be equally important in both services.
Weights and measures is one field in which local government has a vital
part to play in ensuring the success of the change-over. The inspection of
weighing and measuring apparatus is a necessary stage in the change to
metric units in manufacturing, in transport services, and in retailing.
We have already mentioned the action which Government Departments
are taking to ensure that all necessary legislative changes are made in due
time (paragraphs 18.2 to 18.5). Central government will also be concerned
to ensure that guidance is given to the Inspectorate on the specifications
for all necessary equipment, including the full range of local and working
standards. The Board of Trade has already issued several specifications and
others are in preparation. It will be important that local authorities should
order their working standards in good time.
There will undoubtedly be increased pressure of work in weights and
measures departments because of the need to test and either stamp or
restamp weights, weighing machines, petrol pumps and other measuring
equipment throughout the country. The Board of Trade is considering the
problem and seeking means of avoiding unnecessary work or inconvenience
to traders and to the public.
Local education authorities will have a considerable part to play in
achieving the change-over throughout the educational system. This subject
is dealt with in detail in Chapters 4 and 17.
A considerable amount of work is already being done throughout local
government to prepare for and to implement the change to the metric
system. Through the local authority associations, we will keep in touch
with progress. The most essential feature is that local authorities should
continue to receive adequate guidance and support from Government
The role of central and local government
Departments which are responsible for making the major policy decisions on metrication and which through their financial control largely determine the resources which local authorities can deploy.
As part of our general information function, we have a responsibility for
making the metric system of units widely known. We are not, however, the
authority determining the definition of units, or their application and use,
or the legal provisions relating to them. Our understanding is that responsi
bility for defining the units to be used in the United Kingdom rests with
the Minister of Technology, advised by the Advisory Committee on Legal
Units of Measurement and that the main responsibility for defining the
application and use of measurement units in industry rests with the British
Standards Institution, subject to the legal provisions in force at the time.
The legal definitions of some units and standards of measurement are found
in the provisions of the Weights and Measures Act, 1963, which also
regulates their use in trade. The responsibility for the legal provisions
governing the use of units in industry is widely dispersed in the Government
and involves most departments to a greater or less extent.
In the early weeks of our existence, we quickly found that there was a
great deal of confusion throughout almost every section of our society on
whether some metric units could any longer be used. In particular, there
was widespread belief that the centimetre was not to be used at all. This
caused a good deal of consternation. A number of school teachers expressed
the view that it was impossible for them to devise sensible curricula because
they did not know what they should teach. There was also a good deal of
critical correspondence in the daily press.
The main cause of the confusion was lack of understanding about the relationship between the International System of Units and the recommendation issued by the International Standards Organisation that "the use of prefixes representing 10 raised to a power which is a multiple of 3 is especially recommended". This means that where this applies only prefixes which denote steps of 1000 would be used, for example, for length the kilometre, the metre and the millimetre. This recommendation was in fact addressed to those engaged in applied technology and was not intended to be extended for general usage in science or in trade and commerce or other purposes. The misunderstanding about the appropriate application of this recommendation became widespread because of the publicity which the publications of the British Standards Institution and the Construction Industry Training Board attracted; they, being addressed to technical audiences, emphasised the recommendation of the International Standards Organisation.
We have been at pains to remove these misunderstandings by all means
open to us, including, in particular, speaking engagements at public meetings
and contributions to articles in the Press. We have been greatly helped by
booklets issued by the Royal Society and the Schools Council, which gave
clear guidance to teachers. Our task was also eased by the announcement
by the Minister of Technology on 24th July, 1969, of the appointment of
the Advisory Committee on Legal Units of Measurement. The Minister
took that opportunity to state that the Government accepted the Si as a
basis for the changeover to the metric system.
To help to widen understanding of the position we have issued a short
leaflet which describes the SI units which will be used in everyday life.
A list of these everyday units will be found on the back cover. We have also
prepared a further publication, which explains the development of the
International System and the elements which constitute the International
System of Units, which the Government has accepted as the basis for the
metric change. We shall continue with our efforts, using all appropriate
means to extend understanding of SI.
A related matter for which we have no responsibility but on which the
public has looked to us for guidance is the notation to be used with metric
units. The traditional British practice has been the use of the point as the
decimal marker and the comma to separate groups of three digits. In
Europe the comma is widely used as the decimal marker and groups of
three digits are separated by a space. This raises a troublesome issue.
Strictly it does not arise out of metrication but it becomes more pressing
in the context of the change. There is at present no authoritative ruling on
the practice to be followed in the United Kingdom. Indeed, there is no
common practice even among Government Departments apart from the
expression of monetary amounts for which the point as the decimal marker
and the comma to separate groups of three digits is laid down as approved
practice. For scientific purposes the Royal Society recommends the decimal
point and the space between groups of digits. The Parliamentary Secretary
to the Ministry of Technology stated in the House of Commons on the
10th November, 1969 (Hansard, Vol. 791, No. 10, Col. 19-20), "'Decimal
notation is a standardisation problem: in this country it is the responsi-
bility of the British Standards Institution and world-wide of the
International Standards Organisation." The British Standards Institution
is discussing with the Ministry of Technology the desirability of a widespread
enquiry by independent investigators into possible forms of notation and
their relative advantages. Beyond this, even when an agreed United Kingdom
position has been reached, is the further stage of reaching as wide a
measure of international agreement as is attainable. Meantime there is some
urgency in establishing a common Government practice, and we are glad to
be assured that this is receiving immediate consideration by officials.
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