About us

We supervise the hallmarking activities of the 4 UK Assay Offices to ensure there is adequate provision of hallmarking within the UK.

Responsibilities

We are responsible for:

  • working with the assay offices and Trading Standards to ensure that hallmarking law is enforced
  • creating regulations to help the assay offices (the official UK bodies who test the purity of precious metals) in their work and to help the UK jewellery trade grow
  • proposing legal changes and advising the Secretary of State for Business and Trade
  • maintaining the high standards of the UK’s hallmarking facilities
  • monitoring the work of the UK assay offices and their established sub-offices (including any sub-offices offshore)

Priorities

For 2024, our priorities are:

  • promoting economic growth in the precious metals sector in line with the council’s statutory duties
  • supporting the expansion and reach of UK hallmarks by ensuring compatibility with International Hallmarking Convention rules
  • improving the regulation of precious metals marketed online
  • encouraging risk-based and proportionate enforcement of hallmarking across Trading Standards
  • delivering operational integrity, including the revalidation of sub-offices
  • delivering efficient and effective governance and administration, including the appointment of a new secretary

Read our corporate statement to find out how we are performing against our priorities.

Who we are

The Council consists of between 16 and 19 members including the chair.

The Secretary of State appoints 10 of the members, normally for a period of 3 years. Of these 10 appointees, 3 are qualified in consumer protection and 4 are qualified in the trade or manufacture of precious metals.

The Assay Offices appoint 6 members to the council:

  • 2 from Birmingham Assay Office
  • 1 from Edinburgh Assay Office
  • 2 from The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office
  • 1 from Sheffield Assay Office

See the membership page for details.

The council may appoint up to 2 persons as co-opted members. Assay Masters and any other employee authorised by them may attend and speak at meetings of the council.

Council formally meets twice a year where a report is received from each Assay Office on its activities, including statistical reports on the number of articles assayed. In addition, council meets informally twice a year for the purposes of briefing.

About the Assay Offices

Assay Offices test the purity of precious metals, to protect consumers from buying fake items. If an item conforms with the legal requirements for purity, the Assay Office marks it with the appropriate hallmark. In the UK, a hallmark can only be applied by one of the 4 Assay Offices:

Assay sub-offices

The following sub-offices have been approved for operation by the Council:

  • Curteis Chan, Cookson, Domino, Hockley Mint (Birmingham Assay Office)

  • Ferrari Group, Heathrow (Edinburgh Assay Office)

  • Greville St, Heathrow (The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office)

  • Allied Gold and Brown & Newirth, Carrs Silverware (Sheffield Assay Office)

Corporate information

Access our information

Read about the types of information we routinely publish in our Publication scheme.

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