Part P consultation

In the April issue of Electrical Review, our Blown Fuse column (included in this newsletter) covered the government's new Part P consultation, which began on 31 January and closes on 27 April. First to respond to John Houston's column was Phil Buckle, Director general at the Electrical Safety Council (ESC). Phil's letter is reproduced below. I would be very interested to hear your views on the matter.

Download Part P facts and figures

Dear John

I was very interested to read your article on Part P in the March edition of Electrical Review.

I am the Director General of The Electrical Safety Council (ESC) - a charity committed to reducing deaths and accidents from electricity. We have been promoting the importance of Part P as the only legal framework protecting the consumer from unsafe electrical work in the home since the Government announced the Part P review, back in December 2010. We also appreciate, however, the need to balance the industry’s desire to avoid unnecessary red-tape and the public’s need to feel safe about electrical work undertaken in the home.

While we accept that there are valid criticisms of Part P, we believe that it needs to be revised, not removed. Part P’s real benefits, which encompass householder protection and consumer care, improved contractor skills and the sustainability of buildings, are too important to be lost in a cull of legislation.

So, we were happy to see that the recent report by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee recommends that Part P be retained, although – as the report puts it – ‘…there is need for improvement in its operation’. We also welcome the report’s recommendation to increase public awareness and understanding of electrical safety. This is particularly important, since research undertaken for us by Ipsos MORI has found that just 20% of people in Britain had heard of Part P and, of those, over half stated that they either knew nothing about it, or very little.

The Select Committee’s report will feed into the Government’s on-going review - although there is no guarantee that its recommendations will be accepted.

For information, I am attaching a fact sheet on Part P which we prepared, which offers some key statistics on the subject. Further statistical data on a host of related areas can also be found on our website, on http://www.esc.org.uk/stakeholder/policies-and-research/statistics/. I hope you find it useful.

Phil Buckle 
Director general 
Electrical Safety Council