Believe it or not, the history of the body responsible for enforcing tyre labelling legislation in the UK goes back to the Magna Carta. Nowadays, they are known as National Measurement and Regulation Office or NMRO and form part of the government Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)’s “Regulatory Delivery” organisation. However, there is quite a lot more to it than that.
Following the news that 15,000 tyres and their labels will be checked over the next two years as part of the Market Surveillance Action on Tyres 2015 (MSTYR15) project, representatives of the UK tyre business have welcomed the news that surveillance and enforcement steps are increasingly being taken across Europe.
The UK Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) and National Measurement and Regulation Office (NMRO) are merging into a single Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) directorate from 1 April 2016. The goal of the new entity, which will be known as “Regulatory Delivery”, will be to focus on regulation and enforcement. This in turn is likely to impact the way legislation such European Tyre Labelling is monitored and enforced.
The history of the NMO goes back to the Magna Carta, but more recently it was known as the National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML). In 2006, NWML became responsible for the enforcement of RoHS Regulations (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2008) in the UK. On the 28 June 2007 NWML (more recently renamed the National Measurement Office) became part of the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
The National Measurement Office (NMO) has been named as the enforcement body of the European tyre labelling legislation that was implemented across the continent in November 2012. The NMO’s remit covers the effective implementation of tyre labelling in the UK and includes scope for retail checks as well as monitoring the authenticity and accuracy of the labels themselves. News of the appointment bridges the gap between the legislation put in place and the industry take steps to adapt to it. Now however, there is reason for renewed positivity. Not only because there are people to take responsibility for the deployment of the law, but because we will hopefully now be able to begin gauging the real effects of the legislation on how tyres are bought and sold.
With just three months to go before the mandatory implementation of labelling in November 2012, there are still many questions to answer about exactly who will be enforcing the law and what the penalties will be.
From 1 November 2012, every new tyre manufactured since July will be legally required have a tyre label. And what’s more the information contained on the label must be presented – physically or electronically – to the consumer at the point of sale. So what better place to start this month’s in-depth labelling special than to take a look at the much vaunted itself and introduce its main features and some of the discussions relating to it?
Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the labelling of tyres with respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters – to give our new label legislation its full and proper name – comes into force in just a few months. The EU has agreed upon a system of rating tyres using three performance parameters, and almost every new passenger car, light commercial vehicle and truck tyre (C1, C2 and C3 tyres) sold in Europe will come with this rating. But even before its mandatory implementation, murmurs of label scepticism can be heard. Generally, these comments hinge on the label’s limitations, and whether these will hinder consumers from purchasing the tyre best suited to their needs.
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