Guidance

Legal Metrology Delivery: product certification

Information for manufacturers.

• From: Office for Product Safety and Standards
• Published: 21 January 2018
• Last updated: 23 April 2021 — See all updates

Product certification, sometimes called type examination, involves the rigorous assessment of weighing and measuring instruments at the design stage to ensure they comply with the regulations.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) offers product certification services to manufacturers through its Legal Metrology Delivery (LMD) team.

We can issue certificates in accordance with certain UK regulations under Section 12 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 – for instruments outside the scope of the Measuring Instruments (MI) Regulations 2016 or the Non-automatic Weighing Instruments (NAWI) Regulations 2016 (both as amended).

We can also issue certificates under certain International Organisation of Legal Metrology (OIML) recommendations. Outside the UK, instruments must meet the national regulations applying to them in that country. This requirement can sometimes be met by certification to an OIML recommendation.

Process overview

1. Contact us using the email or postal address at the bottom of this page. An LMD engineer will respond.
2. Discuss your requirement with the engineer, who will then give a quotation.
3. Provide the technical documentation for the instrument to the engineer. What should be submitted will depend on the regulations concerned but is likely to include, for example, a general description of the instrument, design drawings, logic diagrams and software information for electronic devices, and appropriate test results.
4. If requested, send a sample of the instrument to us for testing and / or examination. In this case, the engineer will ask when you can make it available, agree the date of delivery, and reserve a place in the testing laboratory schedule.
5. The engineer will review the technical documentation and test / examine the instrument (where supplied) to assess whether it complies with the regulations.
6. Where the instrument meets the relevant requirements, OPSS will issue a certificate. Certificates issued under Section 12 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 will be placed on its GOV.UK website as an online record. OIML certificates will be published on the OIML website. Where the instrument does not meet the relevant requirements, the engineer will contact you to discuss the best route forward. This will depend on the nature of the failure and associated problem.

Please note: Product certification only approves the design of an instrument. The actual instruments must be assessed as well before they are placed on the market.

Contact LMD

For local authority enquiries please email lau.opss@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

For all other enquiries please email opss.enquiries@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

Write to:

Legal Metrology Delivery
Office for Product Safety and Standards
Stanton Avenue
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 0JZ

Published 21 January 2018
Last updated 23 April 2021 + show all updates

1. 23 April 2021

   Information added on the conversion of certificates issued by EU Notified Bodies in order to place regulated weighing and measuring instruments on the GB market after 1 January 2022.

2. 4 March 2021

   Updated to reflect amendments to the regulations at the end of the transition period.

3. 21 January 2018

   First published.