Poland is a republic with an area of 312 685 sq. km and a population of 38.654 million. The capital city is Warszawa (Warsaw). The Head of State is the President. Legislative power rests with a two-chambered Parliament. The upper parliament chamber is the Senate, the lower one is the Sejm. The President, 100 senators and 460 members of the Sejm are directly elected. Poland has three-tiered administrative division. As far as area is concerned the greatest of them are voivodships, which are subdivided into counties and communes. Poland is divided into 16 voivodships.

Organisational Structure and Background

The Central Office of Measures (GUM) is an institution of the state administration competent in matters of measurement and hallmarking.

The President of the Central Office of Measure is the central organ of the state administration and is directly appointed by the Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland.
Regulations of the following legal acts refer to the activities of the measurement administration and the hallmarking administration:

• the Parliament Act of May 11, 2001 with further amendments – Law on Measures,
• the Parliament Act of April 3, 1993 – Hallmarking Law.

Measurement administration in Poland has three levels structure and consists of Central Office of Measures (GUM), 9 Regional and 62 Local Verification Offices.
Hallmarking administration consists of 2 Regional and 10 Local Assay Offices.

Directors of Regional Offices are submitted to the President of the Central Office of Measures. Heads of Local Verification Offices are submitted to the Directors of Regional Verification Offices respectively. The Law on Measures states that the organs (authorities) of the administration of measures are the President of the Central Office of Measures, the Directors of Regional Verification Offices as well as the Heads of Local Verification Offices.

As a government body the Central Office of Measures establishes the basis for scientific, industrial and legal metrology.

The statutory tasks of the Central Office of Measures are as follows:

• establishment, realization and maintenance of the measurement standards and the reference of those standards to international standards;
  
• elaboration and realization of the traceability chain of measuring instruments used in Poland in reference to the national standards according to the hierarchical schemes;
  
• research work in selected areas of metrology and co-operation in those areas with other institutions in Poland and abroad;
  
• elaboration of documents concerning legal metrological control of measuring instruments, i.e. type approval, verification;
  
• evaluation and type approval of measuring instruments manufactured in Poland and imported as well as keeping the register of approved type;
  
• verification and calibration of measuring instruments of the highest accuracy, extreme measuring ranges and untypical design, requiring unique reference equipment;
  
• development of metrological regulations describing the technical requirements and conditions of use for measuring instruments as well as methods and instructions relating to their examination;
  
• professional training of personnel of the administration of measures and metrological operators in industry;
  
• supervision of the observance of the Law on Measures and Hallmarking Law;
  
• dissemination of information on metrology, maintenance of the central technical library and of the collection of museum pieces relating to this area.

The origins of the Polish administration of Measures can be traced to the early period of the Polish state. The earliest preserved written evidence dates back to the year 1136. In 1420 King Wladyslaw II Jagiello established a legal act known as "Statuty Krakowsko - Warckie" in order to unify the units of measures. The first parliamentary act codifying the law in the field of measures and measurement was "Ustawa na miary y wagi" of 1565.

The Central Office of Measures was established in 1919, immediately after the Polish State regained independence, as a continuator of the Office of Measures for the city of Warszawa, organized in 1916.

Equipment Subject to National Controls

Instruments subject to national controls are specified in the lists of measuring instruments subject to type approval and verification. The first of the two contains 244 entries, the other one 57 entries. Both are established by Regulations of the President of the Central Office of Measures. The groups of instruments subject to verification are as follows:-

• Simple length measures and measuring instruments in trade use
• Dipsticks for containers
• Area measuring instruments for leather
• Length measuring instruments for wire, cable, cloth, tape-like materials, paper and dressing materials
• Instruments for measurement of volume and flow
  • Containers
  • Pipettes
  • Burettes
  • Road tankers
  • Gas meters
  • Liquid meters for liquids other than water
  • Measuring systems for liquids other than water
  • Conversion devices for gas meters
  • Conversion devices for meters for liquids other than water
  • Water meters
  • Volumetric flasks (one mark) in glass
  • Standard capacity measures
  • Barrels
  • Fixed storage tanks
  • Self-service devices for meters for liquids other than water
  • Graduated cylinders
• Weights
• Weighing instruments
  • Non-automatic weighing instruments (self-indicating, non self-indicating)
  • Automatic weighing instruments (discontinuous totalising, continuous totalising (beltweighers), gravimetric filling, checkweighers)
  • Rail weighbridges
  • Axle weighers
• Instrument for measurement mass per storage volume of grain
• Measuring instruments for road traffic
  • Traffic control radars
  • Speedometers
  • Taximeters
  • Tachographs
  • Record sheets for tachograghs
• Measuring instruments for electrical quantities
  • Voltage and current measuring transformers
  • Electromagnetic strength field meters
  • Electricity meters
• Measuring instruments for heat
  • Heat meters and their sub-assemblies
• Measuring instruments for chemical and physical - chemical quantities
  • Alcoholometers
  • Densimeters for mineral oils
  • Moisture meters for wood and cereals
  • Polarimeters
  • Refractometers
  • Evidential breath analysers
  • Liquid density meters of the oscillating type
  • Instruments for measuring vehicle exhaust emissions
• Instruments for measurement of acoustic parameters and mechanical vibrations
  • Sound level meters
  • Audiometers
  • Vibrometers
  • Vibrations transducers
• Force
  • Force-testing machines
• Pressure
  • Tyre pressure gauges for motor vehicles

In Poland, measuring instruments are subject to metrological control in the form of:

Type Approval

The type approval of the measuring instrument is a decision of the President of the Central Office of Measures, which admits the measuring instruments of a given type to verification or usage in Poland. That decision is taken on the base of the results of testing after they are found to satisfy the metrological requirements provided under the regulations, standards and international recommendations. The list of measuring instruments subject to type approval and type examination are determined by the Regulations of the Council of Ministers. In certain cases the President of the Central Office of Measures may recognize as equal to type approval and verification the corresponding controls of measuring instruments carried out by foreign metrological institutions upon having ascertained that the requirements the instruments are expected to satisfy comply with the requirements of the Polish measurement administration and that the testing methods and recording procedure are equivalent as well.

Initial Verification

Subject to verification are measuring instruments defined by the Regulations of the Council of Ministers when they are used in public transactions for determination of the quantity or quality of goods or services in order to obtain a proper basis for the settlement of accounts, in production and testing of pharmaceuticals and in official activities.
Initial verification is performed by the Local or Regional Verification Offices. The Regional Offices perform verification of more accurate measuring instruments and of special instruments. The most accurate instruments as well as those of extremum measuring ranges are verified by the Central Office of Measures.

Inspection and Reverification (subsequent verification)

Subject to inspection and reverification (subsequent verification) are measuring instruments defined by the Regulations of the Council of Ministers essential for life safety, health and environment protection. Reverification is performed according to the same rules as initial verification when a measuring instrument had been repaired or reconstructed. In other cases the procedure is simplified and determined by the proper Regulations of the Council of Ministers which also establishes the periodicity of reverification. As regards inspection, the activity of the Local Verification Offices is supervised by the Director of the Regional Verification Office and the activity of the Regional Verification Offices is supervised by the President of the Central Office of Measures. Maximum in-service permissible errors are specified in detailed regulations of the Council of Ministers. The regulations also determine periodicity of reverification depending on the type of instrument (e.g. for weights and balances used for commercial purposes the reverification interval amounts to 3 years).

Legal Metrology Practitioners and Scope

The Central Office of Measures employs 386 persons, 259 of whom are verification officers and persons engaged in strictly metrological activity. Regional offices employ 1424 persons, 1160 of whom are verification officers. Fees for type approval, verification and metrological assessment are determined by the Regulation of the Minister responsible for public budget after getting the opinion of President of the Central Office of Measures.

Sanctions

The legal basis for supervision is stated by the proper clauses of the Law on Measures and the Law on Administration Execution. Observation of the law in the field of legal metrology is supervised by the organs of the administration of measures. The Police and Municipal Guard are obliged to assist the officers of the administration of measures in their activities, if necessary. The Police and Municipal Guard are also empowered to inspect whether the measuring instruments in trade and official activities have valid verification marks and verification certificates. There are several offences whose penalty is a fine, viz.:

• use of illegal units of measures
  
• use of an unverified instrument
  
• use of an instrument when the requirements specified in the respective Regulations determining its proper application are neglected
  
• use of the instrument without a valid verification mark and/or certificate
  
• use of the instrument whose parameters no longer meet the specified requirement before the expiry of the verification interval.

Where the results of an offence may be significant, it is reported to the court of law which starts legal proceedings in order to adjudicate the sentence.

Directive 90/384/EEC

The national regulations concerning non-automatic weighing instruments have been adapted to the technical requirements of Directive 90/384/EEC and standard EN 45501 (which is identical with OIML Recommendation R76). The weighing instruments mentioned in Article 1.2(a) of Directive 90/384/EEC are subject to national controls.

No specific requirements have been implemented as regards the gravity value.

The weighing instruments are designated for specific applications in the following way:

precious metals and stones, chemical analysis	Classes I and III
trade purposes of general type, persons weighing for medical purpose	Class III
checking overloaded lorries, trade purposes of sand and concrete	Class IIII