Employers are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of employees and members of the public on their site and to ensure that they are not at risk from their work activities.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 are made under The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Regulation 3 of the Electricity at Work Regulations recognises a responsibility that employers and employees have for electrical systems.
Regulation 3 from The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989: Persons on whom duties are imposed by these Regulations.
(1) Except where otherwise expressly provided in these Regulations, it shall be the duty of every–
(a) employer and self-employed person to comply with the provisions of these Regulations in so far as they relate to matters which are within his control; and
(b) manager of a mine or quarry (within in either case the meaning of section 180 of the Mines and Quarries Act 1954) to ensure that all requirements or prohibitions imposed by or under these Regulations are complied with in so far as they relate to the mine or quarry or part of a quarry of which he is the manager and to matters which are within his control.
(2) It shall be the duty of every employee while at work–
(a) to co-operate with his employer so far as is necessary to enable any duty placed on that employer by the provisions of these Regulations to be complied with; and
(b) to comply with the provisions of these Regulations in so far as they relate to matters which are within his control.
The legislation of specific relevance to electrical maintenance and fixed wire installation testing is the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
The frequency of periodic inspection and testing must be determined taking into account:
The table below provides guidance on the frequency of formal inspections of electrical installations as well as routine checks.
| Type of Installation | Routine Check | Maximum period between inspections and testing as necessary |
|---|---|---|
| General Installation | ||
| Domestic accommodation - general | - | Change of occupancy/10 years |
| Domestic accommodation - rented houses and flats | - | Change of occupancy/5 years |
| Commercial | 1 year | Change of occupancy/5 years |
| Educationsal establishments | 6 months | 5 years |
| Hospitals and medical clinics - general areas | 1 year | 5 years |
| Hospitals and medical clinics - medical locations | 6 months | 1 year |
| Industrial | 1 year | 3 years |
| Residential Accommodation (HMO etc) | 1 year | Change of occupancy/5 years |
| Offices | 1 year | 5 years |
| Shops | 1 year | 5 years |
| Laboratories | 1 year | 5 years |
| Buildings open to the public | ||
| Cinemas | 1 year | 1-3 years |
| Church Installations | 1 year | 5 years |
| Leisure complexes (excluding swimming pools) | 1 year | 3 years |
| Places of public entertainment | 1 year | 3 years |
| Restaurants and hotels | 1 year | 5 years |
| Theatres | 1 year | 3 years |
| Public houses | 1 year | 5 years |
Any Fixed Wire Testing Report (also known as EICR) will include an 'Observations' section, sometimes referred to as remedial actions.
The NICEIC format for reporting observations and recommendations is as follows:
Where observations are made the inspector will have entered one of the following codes against each observation to indicate the action (if any) recommended:
C1 - 'Danger present. Risk of injury. Immediate remedial action required.'
C2 - 'Potentially dangerous – urgent remedial action required.'
C3 - 'Improvement recommended.'
FI - 'Further investigation required without delay.'
You will need to address C1, C2 and FI faults on your report in order to achieve compliance. However it's always good practice and usually well worthwhile considering rectifying all faults on site. Remember you aren't obliged to use the same electrical contractor to test and to carry out repairs. For greater piece of mind you can also use someone else to fix the defects, also bear in mind that you don't need to have the whole installation re tested after the repairs have been completed.
We will normally provide a no obligation quotation to repair C1, C2 & FI observations. Once addressed, we can issue Minor Works Certificates in order to remain compliant.
Following the completion of any periodic electrical inspection and test programme the client should be provided with a full and detailed Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) for the works carried out.
The report should include details of the following aspects on the inspection and test:
Electrical Installation Condition Reports should be retained for the lifetime of the installation and should be made available by the client to any contractor who carries out the inspection and test in the future.
Fixed Wire Testing requires the isolation of the electrical supply at various times during the inspection. This will cause disruption to the people in a building and for this reason is something that requires careful planning.
A full survey of an installation prior to the commencement of any inspection and testing programme will enable discussions between the client and the contractor and will help to ensure that any disruption will be kept to a minimum.
In practice it is often advisable to arrange for inspection and testing to take place outside of normal working hours, either overnight or at weekends. This will allow more or less free access to the installation without concern for the productivity or the Health & Safety of the users in the building.
There may still be concerns regarding IT Systems, Servers, Telephony Systems and Building Management Systems which will not react well to sudden power downs. These issues are best dealt with by careful planning of the timing of testing in critical areas and working in conjunction with IT Departments and any other interested parties.