As a business we sub contract out the electrical installation of our systems to outside companies. As part of the project deliverables, we ask these companies to test the electrical installation and produce the required documentation (certificate of electrical installation).
We check the companies to make sure they have the correct qualifications and personnel and they are accredited to the required standards and controlling organisations.
Our business has the correct insurance and complies with the correct standards etc.
My question is this, do we as a business have to be accreditied to the same governing body as the installation company e.g. NIC/EIC to be able to sign off/check there work or are we covered?
Assuming it's business premises, rather than people's homes, the answer is "no".
Further, there is no legal requirement for the subcontractor to be a member of any organisation either. They only need to follow the relevant laws - primarily the Health & Safety at Work Act and the Electricity at Work Regulations - and they need to be competent to do the work. You may find it easier to employ people who are members of particular organisations as evidence of competence, but the law doesn't require it.
But check with your insurer what their requirements are. Just because something is legal, doesn't mean that an insurance company will insure it.
If the work is in people's homes, then it gets complicated by Building Regulations, but ultimately, it would still be "no".
If we trained our engineers in testing with the relevant test and inspection course can we self-certify our installations? Do we need to be accredited in some way for it to be worth anything?
If we trained our engineers in testing with the relevant test and inspection course can we self-certify our installations?
Yes. There's no legal reason why you need to use subcontractors if your people are appropriately qualified.
Do we need to be accredited in some way for it to be worth anything?
Worth anything to whom?
If you're worried about insurance, then check your insurance documentation. They may require independent testing, even if the law doesn't. If you don't meet their requirements, they may not pay out if something goes wrong.
If you're worried about the Health and Safety Executive, then you need to keep appropriate evidence that your people are qualified. If you don't do that, then you could be prosecuted if something goes wrong.
Of course, one advantage with using external contractors, is that if your building burns down because of an electrical fault, you can claim off their insurance. If the Health and Safety Executive turn up, you can point to the subcontractor, say it was their fault, and you showed due diligence by employing a member of a recognised scheme. Never underestimate the value of blame transfer if things go bad.
And if you want proper legal advice, ask a lawyer, not just some random person on the internet.
As a company we maintain a good level of training, re-training and auditing of our personnel to make sure we are as well prepared to complete our project responsibilities.
I'm sure the business has also done the same with thier insurance, I will feed back your comments to make sure though.
I see no advantage to "signing off" subcontractors work, they should provide you with the Electrical Installation Certificates. If you start certifying subcontractors works then you are adopting their risk. If you want to check the quality of their work then put in place some witness testing procedures.
I agree, ideally the electrical installation work should be signed off by the people designing and installing it, though it doesn't have to be those people who test it, which is why a installation certificate can have multiple signatories.
If you are designing the installation then handing over the installation and testing to a sub-contractor then you should already be signing the design box on the certificate, really the only way out of this is if the sub-contractor validates your design.
If you design the installation, but then subcontract out the installation before going back to sign it off after you inspect and test it then you should sign twice and the contractor once.
There are three things to sign off, design, installation and verification, the certificate can have three signature boxes, one for each or it can all be rolled up into one.
You refer to your guys as "engineers" which on this forum should be taken as meaning to MIET level, though traditionally it may mean a spanner wielding clanky.
If you mean electrical engineer as in HNC or degree qualified may I suggest a course I did a fair few years ago City and Guilds 2396 Design, Erection and Verification. It is now a level 4 course, when I did it it was the C&G 2400 and level 3 having been elevated since then. If you have the NICEIC in mind as a scheme to join then I think this will better cover your requirements, however if your guys do the C&G Testing and Inspection first I think they will get credit for the testing and inspection part of the C&G 2396 anyway, that's the way it used to work.
The course covers design to completion of an electrical installation from a supervisory point of view, rather than how to tighten screws and the like.
