Corgi licence change

[Ed Sirett]

It may come as something of a surprise that Corgi do actually strike people off the register.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Not aware of what incident you're referring to.

Part P started about 10 years before it came into effect with some very poor (closed) research by the BRE. NICEIC picked up on that and spent years pushing for it. Eventually it was copied into the RIA which a number of us responded to, all pointing out the same mistakes, but were ignored. Then after it came in, ODPM admitted the figures in the RIA were wrong in exactly the way we had stated. And then, as we had predicted (but even more so), deaths due to electrical incidents which had been falling for the previous 30 years before Part P, doubled.

That incident happened after Part P was pretty much done and dusted. It certainly prevented any chance of a last minute U-turn, but I don't think there was any realistic chance anyway.

[Rod]

Yes - I noticed the list of recently struck off when I visited their site the other day. But they don't strike off doctors... :-)

[John Stumbles]

Yeah, my bad: BMA, GMC, WTF :-)

Give him his full title please: Raj Persaud MD PhD CtrlC

(from b3ta.com :-))

[John Stumbles]

October, 2004

Coroner verdict on MP's daughter

The death of a Lib Dem MP's daughter was caused by electrocution as a result of defective home improvement work, a coroner's court has found.

Mary Wherry, daughter of Richmond Park MP Jenny Tonge, died as she emptied her dishwasher at her home in west London.

The 34-year-old mother of two had not realised a metal screw supporting a utensil rack was touching a live wire. She was found by her two young sons.

The coroner's verdict was the death was "consequent on home improvement work".

Killed instantly

Mrs Wherry placed a utensil on the metal rack as her ankle was resting against the stainless steel of the dishwasher.

She was pronounced dead on 31 July in hospital although Fulham Coroner Alison Thompson said Mrs Wherry was killed instantly at her Hampton Hill home.

A two-and-a-half inch black and yellow bruise was discovered on her ankle showing where the electricity had passed.

The court heard a new kitchen was installed at the house in 1999 by unnamed builders and the wires from the extractor to the fuse box had not been installed according to best practice guidelines.

Live current

Detective Inspector Tim Dobson said the wires did not go up the wall vertically and then horizontally, as expected, but veered off at a five degree angle.

"The wire was outside the area of expectancy, at a slight angle," he said.

Two years later Mrs Wherry's husband put the utensil rack beneath the extractor hood and a screw went into the cable.

Over time the rack and cable had moved so that the screw came into contact with the live current.

Verdict

Roger Vincent, a spokesman for the Royal Society of Prevention of Accidents, said: "This case re-emphasises the need to ensure that all electrical work is carried out by experts - it isn't something for DIY.

"In the kitchen, water and electricity is a fatal combination - a lot of water around makes the problem even worse."

[Andrew Gabriel]

My comment was on Steve's quote, not yours. I referred to the MP's daughters's death later in the posting, which I recall well.

BTW, the wiring in that kitchen was professionally installed, and not DIY as some of the press incorrectly interpreted it at the time.

When I was looking at wiring deaths, I think all the ones I could find attributable to recent installation faults (as opposed to ancient wiring) were actually professional installs. The other notable one at the time was an electrocution in an electric shower. The HSE, quite unbelieveably, called in the firm which installed it to investigate. Strangely, they found no fault, in spite of the rather compelling evidence of an electrocuted body on the shower with no other possible cause.

The only DIY one I found at the time was also an electric shower. A guy refurbishing a house had no electricity supply, and next door lent him the end of an extension lead for his tools. He had bought an electric shower, presumably to fit in the bathroom but it wasn't yet fitted. As best as could be determined at the scene, he'd decided to try using the shower to clean himself up, and was probably holding the loose shower wall unit in one hand and the shower head in the other, connected up to the end of the extension lead. I think the word Darwin came to mind in all who read it at the time.

[John Stumbles]

Oh, right:

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:15:02 +0100, Steve Firth wrote: ...

No doubt Steve will be along in a minute to give us a reference for that.

[Steve Firth]

As if I care that much. As I say my recollection was that the howling was about a faulty flex, which killed someone who was ironing. The problem being that when politicians are on the warpath the rake up any and every incident.

[Hugo Nebula]

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:47:55 +0100, a particular chimpanzee, David Hansen randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

"Not inspecting except when someone complains/dies".

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:08:36 +0000 (UTC) someone who may be Ed Sirett wrote this:-

The only time I tried to have this done, many moons ago, they were not in the least interested in dangerous work done by people they have registered.

If they have pulled their socks up in recent years, under the threat of extinction, that is all very good. However, the whole process remains a con.

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:32:30 +0100 someone who may be "Bob Mannix" wrote this:-

That is one of the main reasons why it is a con.

The apparent coyness by the elf 'n' safety mob about the figures is revealing.

[Andy Hall]

Mmm..

One also wonders to whom they consider the risk to be and the nature of that.

[John Stumbles]

...

CORGI's "Gas Installer" magazine has a regular column listing people it's struck off and why - usually about 3 a month. It's been like that for the

5 years I've been registsred.

[John Stumbles]

By the same reckoning the General Medical Council is a con: patients are "tricked" ito having confidence in work done by doctors who may not be any good.

Perhaps you can name one body which registers skilled and responsible people which has never let a single duff person onto their register?

[Rod]

The only GMC case I followed intently was actually a bizarre inversion of the norm. The doctor was shopped by other doctors for their own reasons - but he was actually helping to make his patients well. And was supported by many of them turning up in person repeatedly throughout the hearing.

But to answer your question, even the twelve disciples...

[CS]

CORGI is/are a waste of rations. Just done my own LPG installation on a vessel and just followed the Calor Gas Marine installation booklet. Very simple, with a clear diagram of what kit to install and in which position etc etc. Changing gas hob jets to LPG was also pretty simple, except different size jets for burner sizes not the easiest thing to spot and any explanation seems to have been deliberately left out of the instructions.

[Rod]

Aren't those someone else's letters after his name?

(Yes - did notice the unusual one - maybe Ctrl-Alt-Del on his career?)

[David Hansen]

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:34:09 GMT someone who may be John Stumbles wrote this:-

You appear to accept that there is a need for a registration scheme. I don't.

If these registration schemes were so good then their perpetrators would be less coy with the figures which give an idea of how effective, or not, these schemes are.

Then there is the FUD spread by the operators of such schemes, which CORGI are exponents of.

[geoff]

That's just propaganda

[John Stumbles]

And you leak-tested it, how?