Re: Forthcoming Building Regulations on electrical work (Part P)

[Andy Hall]

Are Scottish BCOs qualified in electrical inspection, Andrew?

.andy

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[Andrew Gabriel]

No idea, but I would doubt it. My impression was that it was a visual inspection only and not a full inspection and test, but I wasn't there and I can't recall if the person who told me was explicit about it. I know from talking with a number of BCO's when I did my response to the original consultation that most English council Building Control departments would not have anyone qualified in full electrical inspection and test.

A quick visual inspection is not really unreasonable as you can get a very good idea if the installer knew what they were doing just by looking at the quality of the workmanship and some obvious things like service bonding correct, etc. Whenever I've done any work which required the electricity supplier to visit and change the supply afterwards, I've never been asked for any test certificates or similar. Again, I assume this is because the workmanship they see is to professional standards. However, I have heard of a number of other cases where they have asked for certificates or similar (some in this newsgroup), and I suspect that's what happens when they arrive and see something which doesn't look like a job to a professional quality level. Training BCO staff to perform a quick visual inspection on an installation would be easy to do given their background, and very effective in practice.

[Rich Williams]

or --

[Andrew McKay]

I received a friendly reply from my MP this morning. He basically agrees with my synopsis of this legislation and is going to take the matter up with the appropriate minister. His words were "yet another example of over regulation".

Just to reiterate, my main focus of attack was that implementing this new scheme "to save lives" would do nothing of the sort, as the vast majority of fatalities and injuries which had implications for the electrical supply actually involve appliances and customer-side wiring, not the behind-the-wall installation. It wasn't ever going to stop someone being electrocuted because they drove their electric lawnmower over the power cable.

Andrew

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