About Legal Metrology

“Legal metrology is the practice of applying regulatory structure and enforcement to the use of measurement instruments and measurement results”.

Whenever there is the potential for a conflict of interests or incorrect measurement results can be detrimental to consumers, to businesses or to society as a whole, we can, thanks to a governmental guarantee, trust the correctness and suitability of the measurement results. This governmental guarantee is primarily based on the appropriate implementation and use of legal metrology.

Legal metrology generally includes provisions for all aspects of the measurement process which are relevant for  ensuring an appropriate level of confidence in measurement results. These provisions cover requirements related to the measurement systems and the allocation of measurement results. It also comprises provisions on the legal metrological control which is performed by or on behalf of the government.

Although the range of regulatory frameworks that can be served by legal metrology is broad and diverse, a common feature is that (demonstration of) compliance with legal requirements depends upon measurement results. Therefore, the process of measurement and the provision of measurement results are of direct concern to the relevant authorities in a wide variety of government domains.