Council services
You are here: Home » Planning, environment and protection » Building Control » Part P » Certification and Background
Part P Self Certification Schemes and Background Information
 |
According to Government statistics, each year on average 10 people die and about 750 are seriously injured in accidents involving unsafe electrical installations in the home. To help address this issue, the government decided that electrical safety requirements should be included in the Building Regulations
This meant that:
- From 1 January 2005 all electrical work in dwellings needed to comply with Part P requirements and carried out by persons who are competent to do the work
- Small jobs such as replacing a socket-outlet or a light switch on an existing circuit will not need to be notified to a building control body - although there will be some exceptions for high risk areas such as kitchens and bathrooms
- All work that involves adding a new circuit to a dwelling will need to be either notified to building control, who will then inspect the work, or carried out by a competent person who is registered with a Part P Self-Certification Scheme
- Persons registered with Part P Self-Certification Schemes will be fully qualified electrical contractors with the ability to thoroughly check a circuit for safety - they will be able to issue Building Regulations certificates of compliance
Most jobs carried out by DIYers will be small jobs that do not need to be notified to building control, but they should still be checked by a competent electrician.
If you are still not clear as to whether the work you intend to carry out is covered by the building regulations you may find the do you need Building Regulations chart useful.
Self-certification Schemes
The Building Regulations Advisory Committee has considered a number of applications to run such schemes and has recommended five of them for approval.
The Government has accepted the recommendation and has approved schemes to be operated by:
Also there is a form of certification that allows competent persons to carry out the electrical work associated with the other work they undertake, the additional bodies for this form of certification are:
