Section 8: Enforcement authorities
Section 8(1) requires local weights and measures authorities (trading standards authorities) in England and Wales to enforce section 3 where a breach of that section occurs in their area and allows them to enforce section 3 elsewhere.
	Subsection (2) allows a district council, which is not a trading standards authority, to enforce section 3 (both inside the council’s district and elsewhere in England). They are not however required to do so.
	Subsection (3) explains that where a breach of section 3 occurs, the area in which it occurs is the area in which the premises under the lease are located. Where the premises are located on a local authority boundary, the breach is taken to have occurred in each of the areas in which the relevant premises are located.
	Subsection (4) provides that the duty and powers to enforce section 3 conferred by subsections (1) and (2) are subject to section 9(8) which provides that an enforcement authority may not impose a penalty on a person if another enforcement authority has already imposed a penalty in respect of the same breach.
	Subsection (5) defines enforcement authority, a term used throughout the Act (and the following sections of these explanatory notes) to refer to both local weights and measures authorities in England and Wales who have a duty to enforce and district councils that have a power to enforce.