board held its first meeting in May 1969 under the chairmanship of Lord Ritchie-Calder when eight committees were set up to deal with the most important sectors of British Industry: Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Land Distribution, Food and Consumer Goods Industries Education and Industrial Training Engineering Industries Fuel and Power Industries Industrial Materials and Construction Industries Transport and Communications Industries Information Policy By the time the board was set up, much of the groundwork, especially rewriting of many British Standards using metric units had been done and many of the industries that stood to benefit from metrication had already metricated, or had a metrication programme in progress. Traditionally the British Government had imposed little regulation on British industry – standards were usually defined by the industry itself, often in conjunction with the British Standards Institution. Legislation relating to units of measure were normally directed at trade with industry being allowed to develop its own standards. After the general election and change of government in 1970, the incoming government announced its intention to continue to "encourage these voluntary developments, including the use of metric specifications for public purposes as soon as consultation with the suppliers shows this to be practicable". White paper In 1972, three years before the target date for completion of the metrication programme, the Metrication Board published a white paper laying out the political and economic rationale behind the adoption of the metric system, identifying the practicalities and potential difficulties of the changeover and outlining the programme. The report emphasised that unlike currency decimalisation, the [remainder of] the programme would be on a phased basis with no M-Day. The report also emphasised the need for co-ordination between the various sectors as all were interdependent and thus that partial metrication was undesirable. Activities of the Board Completion of metrication as cited in the Final report of the Metrication Board was: 1970 – Electric Cables, British Aerospace designs, London Metal Exchange, Flat glass. 1971 – Paper and Board, National Coal Board designs, Pharmaceuticals. 1972 – Steel industry, Building regulations 1974 – Textile and wool transactions, clothing (dual units) 1975 – Retail trade in fabrics and floor coverings, Post office tariffs, medical practice 1976 – Bulk sales of petroleum, agriculture and horticulture 1977 – Livestock auctions 1978 – Solid fuel, cheese wholesaling, London Commodity Market Metrication of retail pre-packaged foodstuffs was phased in during 1977 and 1978 Winding up of the