INFORMATION ABOUT ELECTRICAL "PART P"
Statistics compiled by the government indicate that defective fixed electrical installations in UK households cause around 30 deaths and over 1,250 serious injuries every year. To address this issue and the fact that the electrical industry is unregulated, the government has created new Building Regulations
In May 2003 the Government announced that it would introduce a new Part to the Building Regulations, Part P, which would bring domestic electrical installation work in England and Wales under the legal framework of the Building Regulations. It will, for the first time, place a legal requirement for safety upon electrical installation work in dwellings, although the sector is highly regarded for its high levels of conformity with its chief standard, BS 7671.
It was announced that Part P would only be introduced in law when self-certification schemes were in place to ensure competency of the work undertaken. Such schemes are now in place.
The original Approved Document P Electrical Safety came into force on the 1st January 2005. Its purpose as with all other Approved Documents was to provide practical guidance for some of the more common building situations.
Part P of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations (England and Wales) has been amended in an attempt to provide greater clarity of the requirement and to make enforcement more proportionate to the risk. To reflect these amendments, a new version of Approved document P has been issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government (formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)). This came into effect on Thursday 6th April 2006 and may be obtained from the ODPM website.
It is expected that bringing electrical work in dwellings under building regulations control will reduce the number of deaths, injuries and fires caused by faults in electrical installations. It is expected that nationally Part P will lead to an improvement in the competence of electrical contractors and to an improvement in the overall quality of electrical work.
The new requirements will not apply to electrical works commenced prior to 1st January 2005 or to works covered by a Full Plans Application that has been approved without conditions. For works covered by a Building Notice, Part P will apply where they are not commenced before 1st January. It will not apply to electrical work where the contract for the work was entered into before 1st January 2005 and the work was completed before 1st April 2005.
For a selection of Electrical Safety leaflets suitable for download, please visit this site run by the Electrical SAFETY Council.
Some more Downloadable Factsheets here supplied by the NIC EIC Group.
For answers to some of the more technical questions on the 17th Edition guidance with domestic electrical installations,
please visit Electrical Regulations FAQs website.
Visit the Electrical Regulations Website for more details.
Dream Kitchens is not directly registered with the Part P Competent Person scheme, for the simple reason,
the engineers involved in the completion of the electrical works working on behalf of Dream Kitchens
are already registered in their own right and regularly checked by us.
If in doubt, ask the engineers for their ID.
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