Legislation

It is clear from the legislation that there is a legal obligation to ensure that all electrical equipment is safe. The safety of your employees, customers and visitors is largely under your control and you have a duty to prevent any harm coming to them.

Anyone who lets residential accommodation (such as houses, flats, bedsits, holiday homes, caravans and boats) as a business activity is also required by law to ensure the electrical appliances new or old they supply as part of the tenancy are safe.

Portable appliance testing, is a major contributor to ensuring safety at all times, and will enable your business to comply with the legal standards. Failure to implement a programme of regular appliance testing can lead to serious consequences, as well as affecting insurance policies, as most insurance companies will assume that the owners of a business are compliant with all relevant regulations. These insurers are fully entitled to reduce, delay or even refuse to pay on a claim for damage caused by a portable appliance that has not been PAT tested.

The legislation of specific relevance to electrical maintenance is –

The Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places, a duty of care both upon employer and employee to ensure the safety of all persons using the work premises. This includes the self-employed

The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state:
“every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of:
(a) the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work, and
(b) the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 state:
“Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is so constructed or adapted as to be suitable for the purpose for which it is used or provided”

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 cover most risks that can result from using work equipment, it should be noted that this includes but is not solely Electrical equipment. With respects to risks from electricity, compliance with the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 is likely to achieve compliance with PUWER regulations 5-9, 19 & 22.
PUWER only applies to work equipment used by workers at work. This includes all work equipment (fixed, portable or transportable) connected to a source of electrical energy. PUWER does not apply to the fixed installations of the building, the safety of these is specifically dealt with in the Electricity at Work Regulations.

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 state:
“As may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger”
“System, means an electrical system in which all the electrical equipment is, or may be electrically connected to a common source of electrical energy and includes such source and such equipment”
“Electrical equipment includes anything used, intended to be used or installed for use, to generate, provide, transmit, transform, rectify, convert, conduct, distribute, control, store, measure or use electrical energy”

The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 requires, that all mains electrical equipment new or second-hand, supplied with the accommodation must be safe.

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