The Department for Business and Trade has authorised the sale of pint-sized bottles of wine. But it will not follow through on Boris’s promise to bring back imperial measures in supermarkets and grocery shops. BBC News has more.
Legislation to be tabled in the new year will see the pint-sized bottles sold in supermarkets, pubs, clubs and restaurants.
After Brexit, ministers had looked at changing laws inherited from the EU that mean traders can use Britain’s traditional weighing system only alongside the metric one.
The new legislation will also allow still wine to be sold in 200ml containers, potentially paving the way for an expansion in the canned wine market.
While sparkling wines will be allowed to be sold in 500ml bottles, between a standard full (750ml) and half (375ml) size.Currently, still wine cannot be sold in 200ml quantities and sparkling wine cannot be sold in 500ml amounts.
However, it remains to be seen what the demand will be for pint-sized wine bottles among producers and bottlers.
Pint-sized bottles for champagne were said to be the favourite size of British wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill, and were on shelves until 1973 when the UK joined the European Common Market.
The government has confirmed it is not planning to change the rules on selling in imperial measures after Brexit.
Ministers looked at changing laws inherited from the EU that mean traders can use Britain’s traditional weighing system only alongside the metric one.EU rules meant traders could display imperial measurements – such as pounds and ounces – only alongside metric, and they could not be more prominent.
They hit the headlines in 2001 following the prosecution of the ‘metric martyrs’, a group of market traders convicted of selling goods using only imperial, although they were not enforced rigorously afterwards.
The rules were initially copied over after Brexit, but Boris Johnson’s government subsequently announced they would be reviewed as part of a plans to “capitalise on the benefits of Brexit”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Peter Hitchens, writing in the Mail, welcomes the new pint-sized wine bottles.
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