A big thank you to all our readers who signed the petition to save Hallmarking. You will be pleased to hear that after consultation with the public, the Government have recognised hallmarking as a “good regulation” and will therefore be maintained.

While steps are being taken to “simplify, improve or abolish two-thirds of the retail regulations”, Minister for Business and Enterprise, Mark Prisk, said, “we are preserving good regulation, such as the hallmarking regime, for which there was strong support.”

Dr. Robert Organ, Deputy Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company, said, “without the huge support of the trade the result of the Red Tape Challenge could have been very different. We would therefore like to say a very big thank you to all of those who registered their support for hallmarking on the Red Tape Challenge website.  We are lucky that we are in an industry that pulls together at times like this and from a personal point of view it is reassuring that hallmarking is viewed as being so important.”

Interest in hallmarking is bound to increase over the next 12-months. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth is in 2012 and from 2nd January we will have a special range of silver gifts that will include the special Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Hallmark.