On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 18:30:28 +0100, Stefek Zaba
wrote:

Out of interest, does anyone know just how many people get electrocuted in
the home each year in this country? Is it really enough to warrent these
new regulations?

Andy Hall will be along in a little while with chapter and verse; but if
I remember the posts around the time the "Part P" stuff was being
mooted, he tracked down the UK figures. Deaths from fixed wiring were in
the low single-digits; total electrocutions - mainly from faulty
appliances - were in the tens.

OK, you made me do it (fx: googling). Over at
http://www.rospa.com/product/pdfs/electrical.pdf
there's some information from the
predisposed-to-take-safety-Very-Seriously lobby. They tell us there were
5 fatalities annually from fixed wiring between 1990 and 1998, and 14
more from portable and non-portable equipment. Additionally, around 25
deaths annually are attributable to fires caused by "faulty electrical
equipment and wiring" - no breakdown in this source of appliances versus
fixed wiring, sadly. Each one's a personal tragedy, clearly; but the
overall level strikes me as low, and there would seem to be more to be
gained from looking at appliance safety than the fixed wiring which Part
P sets out to regulate and inspecturate...

Stefek

That sums it up pretty well. Andrew Gabriel also did a lot of
research and the conclusion was that the vast majority of electrical
injuries in the home were from faulty portable appliances, with fixed
wiring related issues very much smaller.

If set in the context of all accidents in the home, electricity
related ones pale into insignificance.

Several of us wrote to our MPs at the time and kept a close eye on
developments reported on the ODPM web site, among other places.

The figures and comments were massaged to de-emphasise anything based
on statistics and anyhting dissenting from what had almost certainly
been decided by Rocky and his sidekick Raynsford.

MPs making enquiries received waffly duplicated letters which said
nothing apart from the party line.

The risk assessment that was done focussed more on anecdotal opinion
from interested parties such as the IEE, NICEIC and others with
something to gain economically or politically.

Little or no tthought was given to enforcability, and of course in
practice this is unenforcable apart from in certain defined
circumstances.

There will still be electrical DIY and there will still be people
doing electrical work who are unregistered.




..andy

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