Part P - Electrical safety in dwellings 2005

3D Kitchen Catalogue | Useful Information | Part P - Electrical safety in dwellings 2005

What's it all about?

From 1st January 2005 the Government introduced new legislation, regulating electrical work carried out in homes and gardens. The new rules affect anyone considering electrical work in the home, including DIY enthusiasts.

According to Government statistics, each year on average 10 people die and about 750 are seriously injured in accidents involving unsafe electrical installations in the home. In 2003 there were 2,336 house fires attributed to faulty installations. To help address this issue, the Construction Industry Deregulation Task Force recommended in 1995 that electrical safety requirements should be included in the Building Regulations.

Part P of the building regulations is intended to increase the safety of households by improving the design, installation, inspection and testing of electrical installations in dwellings when these installations are being newly built, extended or altered.

So the new rules are designed to improve home safety, increase consumer confidence in the quality of electrical work and to make it harder for less professional electricians to ply their trade.

Enforcement

Failure to comply with the requirement will be a criminal offence. Local authorities will also have the power to require the removal or alteration of work that does not comply with the Building Regulations.

Intended work that is subject to the provisions of Part P will have to be notified to the local authority. Traditionally, work notifiable under the Building Regulations is subject to inspection by the local authority's building control department (or other approved building inspectors).

However, to avoid the need for local authorities to appoint specialist agents for this purpose, it appears likely that building control bodies would be authorized to accept certificates of compliance (ie Electrical Installation Certificates) issued by ‘Competent Firms'.

Under such Competent Firms provisions, appropriately approved electrical contractors are able to self-certify that their work meets the requirements of the Building Regulations. In this case there will be a need to supply the relevant building control body (as well as the person ordering the work) with an Electrical Installation Certificate signed by a competent person. The alternative would be to pay a fee to have the work inspected by a local authority building control department, or other approved private sector building inspector.

For the purposes of Part P, the Government has defined ‘Competent Firms' as those registered under the NICEIC Approved Contractor scheme, the Domestic Installer Scheme and the Electrotechnical Assessment Scheme.

The rules mean that:

All work that falls under Part P must be notified to your local authority's Building Control department. But how do you know if the work you have planned needs to be notified?

You DO NOT need to tell your local authority's Building Control department about:

Repairs, replacements, maintenance work; or

Extra power points or lighting points or other alterations to existing circuits (except in a kitchen or bathroom, or outdoors).

You need to tell them about most other work:

If the work DOES need to be notified, you have 2 choices;

Chose a registered, competent electrician who is a member of a competent person scheme.  The work will then be notified to the local authority on your behalf and the electrician can provide you with the legally required certification, confirming the work to be safe in accordance with the new legislation.

If the work is to be carried out by you, a friend or relative, or an electrician who is not a member of a competency scheme, the local authority's Building Control department must be notified direct. They will then send an Inspector to assess the work and provide you with the certification confirming the work to be safe.

3D Kitchen Catalogue | Useful Information | Part P - Electrical safety in dwellings 2005