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Weights and Measures Act 1987

System of weights and measures and standards - Standards of weights and measures

5: Departmental standards

You could also call this:

“The government keeps special measuring tools to make sure weights and measures are correct”

The Secretary must provide and look after important measurement tools called departmental standards. These standards are based on the weights and measures listed in Schedule 2. The Secretary chooses someone to take care of these standards.

Every five years or less, the Secretary must make sure these standards are correct. They do this by comparing them to the official New Zealand measurements for metres and kilograms, or to measurements from other approved countries.

The Minister in charge of the Measurement Standards Act 1992 can decide which other countries’ measurements are good enough to use. The Minister can change this list of countries at any time.

When the Minister makes a decision about which countries to approve, they must announce it publicly. This announcement is called secondary legislation, which means it follows special rules about how it’s shared with everyone.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM102538.

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"New Zealand uses metric units like kilograms and metres for measuring things"

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6: Reference standards, or

"Rules for keeping and marking official weights and measures"

Part 1 System of weights and measures and standards
Standards of weights and measures

5Departmental standards

  1. The Secretary shall provide such standards of the weights and measures specified in Schedule 2 as are necessary for the purposes of this Act.

  2. Such standards shall be known as the departmental standards, and shall be maintained in the custody of such person as the Secretary from time to time directs.

  3. The Secretary shall ensure that the departmental standards are verified from time to time, at intervals not exceeding 5 years, by reference to—

  4. the New Zealand standards for the metre and the kilogram maintained pursuant to the Measurement Standards Act 1992; or
    1. any national standards of measurement maintained by any approved overseas country.

      1. The Minister of the Crown who is for the time being charged with the administration of the Measurement Standards Act 1992 may from time to time, by notice, declare any country outside New Zealand to be an approved overseas country for the purposes of subsection (3)(b) where the Minister is satisfied that the national standards of measurement maintained by that country are of sufficient accuracy to be used for the purpose of verifying the departmental standards.

      2. Any notice under subsection (4) may be in like manner amended or revoked at any time.

      3. A notice under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

      Notes
      • Section 5: substituted, on , by section 3 of the Weights and Measures Amendment Act 1991 (1991 No 9).
      • Section 5(3)(a): amended, on , by section 6(a) of the Measurement Standards Act 1992 (1992 No 52).
      • Section 5(4): amended, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
      • Section 5(4): amended, on , by section 6(b) of the Measurement Standards Act 1992 (1992 No 52).
      • Section 5(6): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).