Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

2.   Interpretation

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   (1)   In this Act—

“authorised denomination” means denomination of weight or measure specified in Schedule 3;

“authorised units of measurement” means units of measurement specified in Schedule 2;

“container” includes anything in or by which an article is cased, enclosed, contained or packed;

“Director” means the Director of Standards appointed under section 29;

“District” means the various districts of Saint Lucia specified under the Local Authorities Act, 1887 and includes the city of Castries;

“equipment” means a weight, measure, weighing or measuring instrument or sub-assembly of a weighing or measuring instrument;

“importer”, means, an individual, group of persons, agency or company who legitimately brings into a country a container or weighing or measuring equipment;

“initial verification” means the verification of a new or repaired weight, measure or weighing or measuring instrument prior to being placed in service;

“in-service verification” means the periodic verification of a weight, measure or weighing or measuring instrument which has been subject to initial verification and has been in service;

“measure” means a vessel of determinate capacity for determining the volume of a liquid or the length of a graduated rod or line;

“measuring instrument” means an instrument used for the measurement of length, area, volume, or capacity or any instrument for the measurement of any quantity;

“Minister” means the Minister responsible for Commerce;

“pre-packaged” means a container containing goods together with the container in a case where—

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   (a)     the goods are placed for sale in the container otherwise than in the presence of a person purchasing the goods; and

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   (b)     none of the goods can be removed from the container without disturbing the integrity of the package;

“packer” means an individual, group of persons, agency or company who or which places in a container the item or product which is to be offered for sale;

“pattern approval” means the approval by the Director of a specific model of a weighing or measuring instrument for its intended use, after one or more instruments have been tested in accordance with the prescribed requirements;

“prescribed mark of verification” means a mark prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

“Specified Standards Laboratory” means the national standards laboratory of any country or an international standards laboratory specified by the Minister for the purpose of this Act by notification published in the Gazette;

“trade” means the selling, purchasing, exchanging, leasing, rendering, consigning or providing of any goods, land, facility, service or work on the basis of measurement and includes the collecting of tolls, duties and taxes on the basis of measurement and the business of providing facilities for measuring by means of a prescribed measuring device;

“verification” includes the operations carried out by an organ of the national service of legal metrology (or other legally authorised organisation) having the object of ascertaining and confirming that the measuring instrument entirely satisfies the requirements of the regulations for verification as well as examination and stamping;

“weight” means a body of determinate mass for use within a weighing instrument;

“weighing instrument” means an instrument for the measurement of mass or weight.

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   (2)   For the purposes of this Act—

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      (a)     a weight or measure shall be deemed to be correct, if upon comparison with a reference of a working standard of that denomination, the error determined is equal to or less than the prescribed limit of error allowed; and

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      (b)     a weighing or measuring instrument shall be deemed to be correct, if upon verification, it has not a greater limit of error than the prescribed limits of error allowed on verification.