Scaremongering (NICEIC)

I suppose I should have expected it. Look what I've just read on the NICEIC website:

Face up to new electrical safety law or face fines Homeowners warned to SWITCH ON to new building regulations

The NICEIC is urging homeowners who plan to tackle home improvement projects to be aware of tough new changes to building regulations, which if not complied with, could land you with a massive £5,000 fine and a property you can't sell.

The new building regulation Part P, effective since 1st January 2005, requires most electrical work in the home to be carried out by a government-approved electrician, such as one registered with the NICEIC. Its aim is to stop the rising number of deaths from faulty electrics, much of which is undertaken by over ambitious DIY enthusiasts and cowboy electricians.

Under the new law, homeowners are still able to replace accessories such as light switches and sockets to an existing circuit, although there are exceptions for locations such as kitchens and bathrooms. An electrician registered under a government-approved scheme must undertake all other work. The alternative, for DIY'ers, is to notify a local building control body before starting any work and pay the appropriate fee for an inspection and a certificate after work is completed.

"This law will make homes safer and is long overdue", says Jim Speirs director general of electrical safety body, the NICEIC. "Homeowners will now be protected from dangerous electrics as a competent electrician will provide them with a certificate once they've completed the work. If you don't get a certificate or do the work yourself without getting it checked, you will not only be sitting on a potential electrical time bomb, but committing a criminal offence too. Your local authority can order the removal or correction of any work and fine you up to £5,000."

Failure to comply could also make it difficult to sell your house in the future. The NICEIC advises that electrical installation certificates are likely to be included in the government's proposed home sellers' packs. These are designed to offer prospective buyers reassurance and peace of mind about the safety of homes being offered for sale. Amazingly, electricians have never been regulated despite faulty electrics causing an average of 12,500 house fires, 750 serious injuries and 10 deaths each year.

The NICEIC welcomes the government's decision to finally clamp down on the cowboys who cause these deaths and is advising homeowners to make sure they only employ government-approved electricians

No need to restart the arguments, we can all Google. I just needed to pass this on having had one of those "grrr..." moments.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove
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They can still get stuffed!

Reply to
EricP

Ok, I was going to leave it at that, not mentioning other "news releases" on the same or similar subject... until I noticed the following:

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Amazingly, electricians have never been regulated despite faulty electrics causing an average of 12,500 house fires, 750 serious injuries and 10 deaths each year.

But

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electricians have never been regulated despite faulty electrics causing an average of 19 deaths and 2,000 injuries every year.

And

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electricians have never been regulated despite faulty electrics causing an average of 2336 house fires, 750 serious injuries and 10 deaths each year.

and

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the fact that faulty electrics result in 19 deaths and over

2,000 non-fatal electric shock accidents each year,

and

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to Government statistics, fixed electrical installations in homes in England and Wales cause around 5 fatalities and over 500 non-fatal injuries every year. And 12,500 fires in homes across the country are reported as having an electrical source of ignition causing about 25 deaths and 590 nonfatal injuries each year.

and

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to Government figures, around 10% of domestic fires are electrical, and of these, a third are directly due to old or bad wiring. This equates to over 2,000 electric shock accidents and 9,300 electrical fires in homes every year.

and I'm sure if I looked further I'd see more. So what is it then?

5, 10, 19 or 30 deaths a year?

2336, 9300 or 12500 house fires?

750, 1090 or 2000 injuries?

Or is it just that these people make the figures up on the spot to try to prove a point?

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

That's a lot more politely expressed than the deeply encrypted (can you say ROT-13?) .sig on every posting from one of the two 'moderators' at the highly-trafficked forum of this month's Winner Of Friends and Influencer Of People. Hope that's the positioning he's after for his company...

Reply to
Stefek Zaba

Hi Martin

Or to put it another way; Up to 0.00005% of the UK population die each year Up to 0.063% of UK housing stock catches fire Up to 0.0034% of the UK population are injured.

No wonder we need legislation - its a national scandal.

Dave

Reply to
David Lang

Yet we still allow people to be in control of a tonne or more of metal doing many tens of miles per hour. Several thousand people are killed on the roads each year (think about it 3650 is 10 a *day*...) and several tens of thousands suffer serious injury.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

How many people die of MRSA every year? If it's more than 10 ( or 19 ) then I suggest they spend the money on cleaners, and do something useful and popular for a change. Fat chance....

Andy.

Reply to
andrewpreece

5000 on secondary infections acquired in hospital (of which MRSA is one of the more common). That is the government figure however, so any guess as to what the real one is.
Reply to
John Rumm

I shall wait with interest to see if there are any documented cases of that actually happening. I suspect I'm in for a long wait ?

Reply to
Mark Carver

So they provide a say 10 year warranty on their member's work?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Not for much longer -- I hope we've all written to our MPs in protest at the idea of satellite tracking all cars in the UK.

Then think of the added "convenience", when they have to be tied into our compulsory ID cards.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

And all those speeding tickets they could automatically generate...

Reply to
John Rumm

The legal requirement is 2 years.

And you can't buy insurance for that as yet, not even from the NICEIC.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

Why stop at speeding ? Parking too.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

So if a third of 10% of house fires is 9,300, that would mean 279,000 house fires in total each year. According to

in 2002 there were 65,000 dwelling fires overall. 2,773 caused by electrical distribution. So the 1/3 of 10% is in the right ballpark, but not the numbers.

Reply to
John Armstrong

But apparently only if you're over 24 if that judge gets his way.

Reply to
Mike

Probably "electricians" in their white vans are the main culprits. Oh, I forgot, they are mainly sat outside elec wholesalers drinking tea/smoking when they've "gone to get parts".

Reply to
OldBill

There's no legal requirement at all.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

But don't both ideas contravene our human rights of privacy?

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Fair enough, but to be registered for the purposes of Part P with any of NICEIC, ECA, ELECSA, whatever, whatever, they *all* require the applicant to have a minimum of £2M public liability insurance, and insurance in place to be able to offer an (optional) 2-year warranty on all work undertaken. This insurance isn't easy to find for the slole trader, and although NICEIC say they are "working on it" even they don't yet have a scheme in place apparently.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

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