SHAPE OF THING TO COME??????? Archived Message
Posted by andy evans on January 17, 2005, 1:58 am, in reply to "Re: Licencing Technicians - How hard can it be" |
"Some bright spark has had a very dim idea
In seven weeks' time, thanks to new rules rushed through by John Prescott to "harmonise" Britain with the rest of Europe, we face the prospect of a startling shortage of self-employed electricians. After January 1, any of us wishing to carry out any but minor electrical works in our homes may find that, under the new "Part P" of the Building Regulations, we have fallen foul of one of the more bizarre legislative shambles of recent years.
The new regulations, introduced by Mr Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister only last summer, to conform with an edict from Cenelec, the Brussels-based "Committee for the Normalisation of Electrotechnology", impose draconian new rules on anyone needing to carry out electrical work in the home.
Apart from simple jobs such as the replacement of a cracked light socket, electrical work will be legal only if carried out in one of two ways. First, every electrician, however experienced, will have to be certified as a "competent person". This will require him or her to pay between £350 and £1,500 to be "monitored" for six months by employees of one of a handful of private companies appointed by the ODPM as "certifying bodies". During that time, the electrician will be disbarred from carrying out any but minor works, except while his work is being monitored, possibly by someone very much less experienced than himself. He will subsequently have to pay a similar annual fee to have his certificate renewed.
The only alternative, applying to householders themselves as much as to professional electricians, will be to submit plans of most electrical work in advance to the building control department of the local council. This will include work of any kind in a kitchen or bathroom. The council will then have to be paid to inspect the work.
It is estimated that 100,000 electricians, many of whom are still barely aware of this new scheme, will be caught up in its toils. Clive Brittain of Milton Keynes, who has worked as a self-employed electrician for more than 30 years, with every professional qualification, says: "I am all for safety and good practice, but this nonsense from the ODPM is farcical. How can we be expected to keep paying out for registration, assessments, annual membership and inspections, while being forced to lose so much working time? The whole thing is bonkers."
Clive Thornton, of Sale, Cheshire, adds: "In addition to all this hassle, I will also, for an as-yet-undisclosed fee, be required to register a copy of every job certificate I issue with an as-yet-unnamed, Government-approved private firm. All this seems like rather a lot of effort to put genuine one-man businesses out of business, while leaving the cowboys untouched (as usual)."
One particularly puzzling feature of Mr Prescott's scheme is the speed with which it has been rushed through. Calls to several council building departments suggest that they are in no way prepared for the deluge of extra work the new rules will involve. It will become a criminal offence for householders to carry out most electrical work without getting council approval. And, as from January 1 it will similarly become an offence, punishable by fines of up to £5,000, to sell a property without a certificate for any electrical work carried out after the new law comes into force. Stand by for a nationwide howl of outrage at another shambles created by Mr Prescott."
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