In New Zealand, the Measurement and Product Safety Service (MAPSS) located within the Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MCA) has responsibility for legal metrology. Physical metrology services are provided through the Measurement Standards Laboratory (MSL) situated within Industrial Research Ltd, a Crown Research Institute.

New Zealand's ability to prescribe measurements aligned to international standards (legal metrology) and to trace the weights and measures of the properties of products to internationally recognised standards (physical metrology) is fundamental to our ability to trade, both domestically and internationally. Some actors in the economy rely on the measurement services these agencies provide, for example:

manufacturers rely on measurement to control the quality of their products;
regulators rely on measurement to ensure the safety of products;
traders rely on measurement to protect their commercial interests and set prices; and
customers rely on measurement to know how much of a product they are purchasing and its physical quantities and characteristics.

An inability to supply the required information in the correct format or verify compliance to the standards that any of those stakeholders require, may effectively prevent trading in a market.

Technological advances continue to increase the ability to refine measurement to increasingly precise levels, for example, in nanotechnology and chemical traceability. This opens up opportunities for innovation but it also enables technologically advanced countries to set mandatory requirements that create trading difficulties for exporters in countries that do not have the expertise or sophisticated equipment required to test their products to increasingly precise levels.

The discussion document posed two questions relating to metrology:
in a period of rapid technological advance in metrology, how can the capability of metrology services be maintained to meet New Zealand's strategic needs?
is there sufficient co-ordination between Government, other infrastructure bodies and metrology services to ensure that decisions on future resourcing and directions of such services meets the needs of their users?

In addition a further issue has emerged: regulations do not always cite measurements in a way that will enable tests to be carried out to assess for accuracy to legal measurements or to traceability standards.

Co-ordination

Laboratory testing, physical metrology and legal metrology all have specialist technical issues in common. This is partially recognised by MSL representation on the Testing Laboratory Registration (TLR) Council and the close collaboration between those two institutions. It would be beneficial, however, for these agencies to hold annual or biannual meetings to exchange information on developments in their fields, identify possible synergies in expertise, equipment or training and educate industry on the various requirements of the three organisations.

Ensuring Capacity

MAPSS has expressed a concern that its resources may be inadequate to meet the long term commitments that it undertook as a condition of New Zealand becoming a member of the International Organisation for Legal Metrology (OIML) in 2003. As most countries will only recognise measurements from countries with OIML membership, it is important New Zealand retains its membership status. MSL is also aware of the risks to New Zealand of falling behind in capacity in areas that are crucial to the New Zealand economy (for example, traceability of soil elements for agricultural exports). These risks are exacerbated by the competition for highly specialised expertise in a very tight international labour market.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore and Australia are making significant investments in this area on which New Zealand may be able to leverage. In 2006, Singapore announced a S$20 million allocation of government funds over the next five years for equipment to augment its annual S$7 million operational and human resource budget for metrology. The Australian Federal government allocation for the National Measurement Institute which covers physical and legal metrology, but not the enforcement aspects of legal metrology (which is a State responsibility), is A$28 million annually. By contrast, MAPSS receives $1.5 million in government funding and MSL $5.504 million from the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MORST).

In all three countries metrology activities are part funded from service fees. The disparity in funding levels suggests that New Zealand should monitor closely its capacity in legal and physical metrology to ensure that we continue to maintain the technical skills and equipment necessary to test products to the standards required by our export markets.

MORST is to undertake an effectiveness and efficiency review of MSL in 2007 which should identify the adequacy of MSL's current funding arrangements. This review has found, however, that it would be beneficial to ensure that there is an on-going process to assess and monitor the availability of metrology services to support regulators and industry, especially exporters. As metrology services are expensive, it will also be important to ensure that no unnecessary duplication of services occurs in New Zealand nor that investment is made in expertise or equipment that could be purchased more economically through co-operative arrangements with overseas institutions.

Both the Australian National Measurement Institute and Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board of Singapore (SPRING) have expressed an interest in collaborating with New Zealand in new areas of expertise such as nanotechnology and chemical traceability but in order to collaborate New Zealand will need to make a contribution and to do so will need to develop capacity in some areas of common interest.

In the past, MORST received information on physical metrology needs from an advisory body, comprising representatives from MSL, International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ), but it lapsed. The re-establishment of such a group with wider representation from Treasury, MORST, MED, MCA, Energy SciTech Ltd (ESL), MSL, Biosecurity New Zealand and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority that met annually prior to budget allocations being determined could serve a useful purpose in gathering together intelligence on, and in making an informed assessment of, the needs and priorities in both legal and physical metrology. Such assessments should take into account:

the cost of setting up and maintaining the service in New Zealand;
the availability of these services overseas;
the practicality of using the overseas services;
the cost of commissioning the services overseas;
the number of potential users in the New Zealand market;
the size, by value, of current and potential domestic and / or export markets affected; and
the availability of technical expertise within New Zealand.

Citation of Measurement

MSL report that they are sometimes requested to test measurements which are incorrectly formulated in regulations and are therefore impossible to verify. The creation of a Regulatory Forum, improved coordination between regulators and measurement agencies and the proposed guidelines on the use of the standards and conformance infrastructure to support quality regulatory outcomes, as discussed in the Regulation paper, should assist in addressing this issue.

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Printed: 25/11/2009