I have already looked at the consultation and responded as I thought. Lets be clear unlike some countries "Electrician" is not a protected status where only suitably qualified persons can use such a title, nor as far as Im aware is there a detailed definition of "Electrician".

The thoughts are admirable, but how do they expect to stop those persons not following regulations etc and being compliant with standards will always be the downfall. The matter simply sit with those that employ these incompetent persons.


Reg 16 of the EAWR 1989 states exactly who can carry out electrical work and the limits of such work, how the Scot Gov expect to get round that I simply dont know, yes all existing schemes are voluntary and large industrial, commercial and even housing developers and development owners may insist on people being members of those schemes and I would hope there are no electric shocks and fires associated with work carried out by individuals and firms. The issue is and always will be they the Scot Gov are trying to address where the main issues lie and thats in domestic situations. No matter what they do, they will never stop a home owner or even a tenant, speaking with somebody down the pub or whatever and getting the local handy person or "Electrician" to install some extra power outlets, lights or EV charger point.


Great intentions but I dont see anything improving, trust worthy and competant electrical persons and firms will end up paying more to ensure membership of whatever they bring out, but will never stop the "Cowboys". We also need to remember that electrical apprentices cant be called an electrician until they are time served so wording in the EAWR 1989 describes exactly what apprentices can carry out.

97% of people want electricians to be qualified, so long as it doesn’t stop them from doing DIY electrical work in their homes, homes that may then be sold on to someone else and it doesn’t stop unqualified people like plumbers and kitchen fitters doing electrical work for them.

Personally I think it needs care - there is a risk that if restrictions on who can do what are  implemented badly, it can be uneconomic for small firms doing mostly minor works,  and may then actually push down quality.

From what I have seen it is quite often the large outfits at the fixed price contract "shallow end " of the market that produce the poorest work - the ones where one person does the installing, perhaps a different person each day, afterwards someone else is supposed to do the testing and a third, who has not been anywhere near the place, actually signs the forms. 'our skilled installers' are often anything but, just the employee nearest at the time the phone rings, who is paid to get something (anything) up and running in the shortest possible time and then get out quick, into the van and on to the next one...


Also it needs to be proportionate - there really are not that many serious electrical incidents compared to other domestic ones - I suggest that most installations do not meet BS7671, and if AMD 2 goes through the fraction will increase, but most of those are not an immediate dangers. And the accident figures from countries that have systems with  licences to practice and so on do not show a marked reduction.


Again, personally, I think there is more mileage in educating the public to know what good and bad work should look like, and how to complain in a sensible manner.

regards Mike.

Part P was written in a manner to clamp down on plumbers and electricians doing electrical work, that’s now been eased up on in England, but not Wales.


Far be it for me to suggest Scotland should look at England’s track record, but south of the border it’s been a waste of time and money trying to regulate who can do electrical work.


Do you think the original Part P that is still in force in Wales is better or worse than the current English version?

I skimmed through the Scottish Government webpages and it reads like the brief that was given to the English Civil Servants to draft Part P.


97% of people asked think electricians should be qualified, but don’t think those who aren’t should be banned from doing electrical work, neither should DIYers be banned from doing it, despite the fact that other people may be exposed to risks from their dodgy work and the house may be sold on with a substandard electrical installation.

Have the Scottish Government actually determined how many people in Scotland identify themselves as electricians and what qualifications they have?


It is quite possible that there aren’t enough people skilled enough to be able to register with any scheme to make it viable and service the market.


Whole areas of Scotland may suddenly discover they no longer have a local electrician.

I think this is the whole crux of the matter what is the definition of an "Electrician"? They indicate should the term have protected status? So that would mean somebody saying or advertising themselves as an electrician when they were not could be taken to task by trading standards for mis representation. Im sure the SJIB have and do have a register of all those grades of "Electrician" on their books but many practising electrical technicians wont have a SJIB card depending on their work arena.


To me it will not help drive down any fire/explosion or electric shock events, as Mapj1 clearly indicated and I agree fully if the house owner or indeed any person just wilfilly engages anybody that says they are an electrician or electrically qualified for the task they then desrve whats coming. However others then unfortunately pick up the cost to do the job correctly. Its a public education exercise that is required but cost of work will always be the driver.

It’s interesting to see how many people don’t know what the NICEIC is, a generation ago far more people would have been able to identify that is is an electrical scheme, even if they could not precisely define what it is.


I argued for some years, at quite a high level, that the NICEIC and NAPIT should stop advertising in electrical trade magazines trying to attract electricians to enroll on their schemes. Instead the money should be spent on advertising to consumers to get brand recognition, which would then encourage electricians to join the schemes.


Consumer recognition leads to more electricians joining the schemes, the advertising money could be spent more wisely.


The NICEIC did have a short run of advertising on billboards a few years ago, there was one outside of a local railway station, but it didn’t last long.

Indeed - that would make more sense, if customers were educated to say 'show me your papers' in the best 'allo 'allo manner,  and expected, nay demanded,  to see an installation certificate of some sort and supporting result sheet rather than just look puzzled and say ' the last chap didn't do all that', then perhaps it would be taken a bit more seriously.


It may be worth looking at the cost benefit analysis for part P, as it is still out there and noting just how far off the estimates of cost (under stated) and supposed benefit (overstated) actually were.

here - archived.


I've said  something like  it before but I've always been of the opinion that "guerrilla wiring" is a bit like your teenage kids and sex...


You'd really rather they didn't, but you can't find who, where, what & when before it happens, and even in those occasions when you could, it's always when it is now far too late and not actually going to be helpful to go off on one.


So, in both cases, your best approach is education and openness with the "what to expect and how to do it safely" information, and being prepared to be helpful and pick up the bits and be a shoulder to cry on as required.


(And its good to keep a sense of proportion, we were all young at least once, and its always possible that some of my/your early special installations are now someone else's weird wiring nightmare to debug )


regards Mike.