The government have been running a working group on Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector, their first report can be found here.
Apart from making the old false statement that "RCDs are devices designed to prevent people from getting a fatal electric shock if they touch something live such as a bare wire." (Sec 24) they concluded that the current schemes for defining competent persons are not adequate - and so they propose setting up a whole new "PRS electrical testing competent person scheme".
The first thing that goes through my mind is that if you require sparkies to sign up for yet another scheme/register then a lot just won't bother - especially if it costs money (and can we realistically not expect there to be fees to cover the running costs ?). So the end result is that landlords are effectively forced to select from a smaller pool of sparkies for the mandatory EICRs.
Then I get to thinking ... yes I know that can be dangerous
If the concern is that some electricians are not competent for "inspection and testing of existing buildings where no electrical installation work was being carried out" - then how can they be competent to test where they are doing work ? And surely someone who isn't competent to test, isn't competent to do the work that will need testing afterwards ?
Apart from making the old false statement that "RCDs are devices designed to prevent people from getting a fatal electric shock if they touch something live such as a bare wire." (Sec 24) they concluded that the current schemes for defining competent persons are not adequate - and so they propose setting up a whole new "PRS electrical testing competent person scheme".
The first thing that goes through my mind is that if you require sparkies to sign up for yet another scheme/register then a lot just won't bother - especially if it costs money (and can we realistically not expect there to be fees to cover the running costs ?). So the end result is that landlords are effectively forced to select from a smaller pool of sparkies for the mandatory EICRs.
Then I get to thinking ... yes I know that can be dangerous
If the concern is that some electricians are not competent for "inspection and testing of existing buildings where no electrical installation work was being carried out" - then how can they be competent to test where they are doing work ? And surely someone who isn't competent to test, isn't competent to do the work that will need testing afterwards ?