Paul Barker said:
Well at least that is what I was told by the tutors at the Faraday Centre non of whome have less than 25 years in the industry.
Well - they might know a lot about electrical installations, and the IEE Wiring Regulations, but they know SFA about the Building Regulations.
Just one small point not picked up on earlier in the thread. An electrician with his c and g in the Big Brown Book and the Full inspection and Testing qualification (forgotten the number) CAN inspect test and certify YOUR work as well as his own.
He can inspect and test, and issue I&T EICs. But this is
not the same as certifying compliance with the Building Regulations. The only person who can certify someone else's work as compliant with the Building Regulations is a Building Inspector.
A person with the limited qualification which entightels them to do electrical work under the part P rules (like myself, EAL level 2) can only certify their own work at the time of the work, and cannot re- test it at the interval he/she recommends in future (max 10 years), and neither can he/she ceryify any work anyone else did.
Again you are getting hopelessly confused about the difference between certifying an electrical installation for compliance with BS7671, and certifying compliance with the Building Regulations.
For the latter, you need to be registered with one of the competent person schemes, and it doesn't matter who you are, or what qualifications you have, or what scope of registration you have, you can only certify your own work.
For the former, you don't need to be registered, and you don't officially need any qualifications, you just need to be able to sign the declaration that says
"
I/We, being the person(s) responsible for the inspection and testing of the electrical installation (as indicated by my/our signatures below), particulars of which are described above, having exercised reasonable skill and care when carrying out the inspection and testing, hereby CERTIFY that the work for which I/we have been responsible is to the best of my/our knowledge and belief in accordance with BS 7671, amended to (date) except for the departures, if any, detailed as follows:"
He can however and must inspect and test other aspects of your installation to do his job right. Just can't give you a certificate worth any more than the paper it's writtten on.
Carrying out inspections and issuing PIRs are legitimate activities for an electrician. You don't officially need any qualifications to do it, nor do you need to be registered with any trade bodies, and if you are registered, NICEIC/NAPIT/ECA/ELECSA/UTCAA cannot stop you from doing it. They may stop you from using their certificates but they cannot stop you doing the work using certificates from the IEE website or your test equipment manufacturer.
As to whether the certificate is worth anything - that depends on how competent you are, just as it always has....