Dangerous wiring by plumber

[ban-all-sheds]

The problem existed well enough.

But it wasn't one of electrical safety, it was one of decades of whining from the electrician trade associations who had seen what gas registration had done to prices and revenues and wanted some of the same.

 

[SimonH2]

Thanks BAS, beat me to it - that's exactly what it's all about. The schemes would really like it to be a closed shop like gas - and when you read some of their promotional material you could be forgiven for thinking that it had already become the case - IIRC NICEIC have put out some promotional material over the years that is carefully designed to make the average man in the street believe that ONLY an NICEIC member can do electrical work safely. As I say, very carefully worded so as to make that statement, but without actually stating it in a way that can be challenged as false advertising.

As to the schemes supporting 3rd party certifications - that isn't going to happen. Allowing their members to certify a non-member's work would go directly against their desire to have no work done by non-members.
And as already said, in general registered sparks aren't interested in overseeing someone elses' work - for much the same reason, why help someone to "steal" your work ?

 

[winston1]

Gas is not a totally closed shop. DIY gas is allowed if it is for yourself. You cannot do it for someone else even if you are not being paid.

 

[SimonH2]

Indeed, but you won't find Gas Safe advertising that fact

 

[ericmark]

When we had the English review of Part P some good points were made, those in favour of scrapping it pointed out percentage of population who suffer with alzheimer's or similar before retirement age, and point out the number of electricians who have been thrown out of a scheme is a lower percentage, and there was nothing stopping them joining another scheme provider, information is not passed provider to provider, also to require people to be a scheme member is no different than requiring them to be a member of a union and closed shops have been banned.

If you lose your driving licence the courts require things to change before you get it back, but loosing scheme membership there is no such controls.

I do feel there is a huge difference when some one charges for there work, to some one who does it either DIY or a favour, however it's too easy then to get around the law, claiming faulty work was done as a favour.

We can all make mistakes, but some one doing work without the testing equipment that's not a mistake.

 

[SimonH2]

An obvious difference between gas and electric work is the scale and nature of the dangers.
Electricity is relatively safe - people generally understand that if they touch a bare wire then it could be "a bad thing" if it is live. But even without RCDs, I would suggest that most people "get a belt" but survive the encounter.
Gas is a different beast. Few people understand combustion, carbon monoxide, and so on - and as it's not something that alerts you to it's presence (like the stench agent does to unburned gas leaks) then no-one might know it's there before it's too late. Also, generally speaking, electricity doesn't have the ability to demolish not just the house, but several houses either side, or take the whole corner off a block of flats (c.f. Ronan Point). Partly as a result of the latter, gas is not allowed in high-rise buildings unless certain design criteria are met relating to the ability to withstand internal pressures arising from a gas explosion.
It could be argued that electricity destroyed Grenfell Tower, but I think that would be rather exaggerating things - it may have started a small fire, but that wouldn't have been serious if not for other factors.