Scottish Govt to regulate "electricians"

If only they could do the same for those that call themselves politicians.

I think you'll find 'we want to hear' means we've already decided on some dumb course of action on a matter we don't understand & want to appear to be doing what the people want.

Well, there is an election coming up, so anything that distracts attention from the Sick Kids' Hospital, care home deaths, unemployment 2.1% worse than the UK average, and 45% of workers facing pay cuts, will be welcome.

Owain

Erm well bypassing that little hot potato for a moment, what about DIY. When I could see most regulations on wiring stuff was moor or less common sense, but as time has passed lots of extra bits have been added to protect against some very rare issues and situations. The fact is that if you make it so difficult to be a common sense type electrician, many will simply go off grid, pun intended and either DIY when they have no idea what they are doing, or get in an under the radar cowboy. Brian

I'm more concerned about the low standard of work and supervision by qualified electricians registered with the self-certification scams.

And most dodgy gas work seems to be done by Gas Safe fitters rather than DIY.

Owain

That's a little unkind. They wouldn't be consulting if they weren't inclined to do something. But IME responses to consultation can affect the "what" and "how".

Of course that leaves the problem that responses tend to come from evangelists for change rather than from a cross-section of consumers. But the same is true of politics and policy generally,

Owain Lastname presented the following explanation :

Presumably the amount of DIY gas work vs Gas Safe is miniscule, so difficult to tell?

I should have said DIY or unregistered trade gas work.

Yes, it's a small amount.

I think the point is that people know about CORGI for gas work (of course it's Gas Safe now) but get confused about all the various schemes for sparkies, most of which of course do NOT require the individual operative to be qualified.

So maybe Scotland will get a Super Register of individual registers.

Owain

Plenty of videos on Youtube where UK electricians show the really bad workmanship of fellow electricians, including falsifying testing results.

been too easy for years

Yes even I have come across that one - either he didn't know the difference between a TN-S and a TN-C-S earthing system or the guy that filled out the minor works certificate had never seen the installation (I have my own views on which).

Or Consultants

Being cynical, it is likely trade led, with the intention of making all electrical work illegal, including DIY, unless performed by a paid up member of their organisation.

So just become an 'Electron Flow modeler' !

It can. But it's routinely dismissed & ignored by politicians that imagine they know what they're doing. It's unfortunate that they so often don't.

That's one issue. The bigger one is that politicians usually lack knowlege in the area they're messing with. Part P, HIPs, counterproductive insulation rules, clueless conclusions from Grenfell, nonstandard CFL lampholders, the list goes on. And on.

NT

One of the interesting things that came out of Grenfell is that Celotex obtained their ?BBA rating based on a certain additive to the foam core. This additive was changed or removed but they didn't bother to have the new production certified, they just kept the old certificate. Naughty.