Sunday Telegraph 14/5/06 page 14: report by Christopher Booker:

heading: ' A shocking mess Mr Prescott left'

[1st 3 paragraphs concern a Mr Walker, a former electrician now working
in an electrical shop due to 2 (s)hags' Part P rules, who served a
customer charged £1250 by a Part P electrician when he would have
charged £60.]

last paragraph

........At least when I had a new shower unit installed recently, I was
more fortunate than Mr Walker's ex-customer. My pliumber did the job
with his usual skill. But Part P meant that I also had to pay £20 to
an electrician to stand chatting for 10 minutes while the work was
done.
---------------

My undertstanding is that membership of a Part P scheme is a permit to
actually undertake the restricted electrical fitting work NOT a licence
to supervise, oversee or inspect a thrid party's work.

Any opinions please?

If that is the case, it rather seems that Mr Booker needs to reclaim
his £20 from the plumber and hot foot to his local building control
with a £300 regularisation fee.

jim_in_sussex wrote:
Sunday Telegraph 14/5/06 page 14: report by Christopher Booker:

heading: ' A shocking mess Mr Prescott left'

[1st 3 paragraphs concern a Mr Walker, a former electrician now working
in an electrical shop due to 2 (s)hags' Part P rules, who served a
customer charged £1250 by a Part P electrician when he would have
charged £60.]

last paragraph

.......At least when I had a new shower unit installed recently, I was
more fortunate than Mr Walker's ex-customer. My pliumber did the job
with his usual skill. But Part P meant that I also had to pay £20 to
an electrician to stand chatting for 10 minutes while the work was
done.
---------------

My undertstanding is that membership of a Part P scheme is a permit to
actually undertake the restricted electrical fitting work NOT a licence
to supervise, oversee or inspect a thrid party's work.

Any opinions please?


Yes, it *is* a licence to supervise, etc. Part P requires that either
a council Building Control Officer (not necessarily electrically trained
or qualified) or an *employee* of a company registered with one of the
half-dozen organisations able to approve self-certification should
certify the installation compliant with regulations. It does not require
any particular person to do the job. DIY is still perfectly acceptable,
as long as approval is obtained from a certified person.

In article ,
Joe writes:

Yes, it *is* a licence to supervise, etc. Part P requires that either
a council Building Control Officer (not necessarily electrically trained
or qualified) or an *employee* of a company registered with one of the
half-dozen organisations able to approve self-certification should
certify the installation compliant with regulations.

An employee of a company registered with one of the
half-dozen organisations able to self-certify can _do_
the work, but cannot certify someone else's work for
the purposes of Part P. A number of the local authorities
were claiming this was acceptable, but Part P has been
reissued to make it clear it is not. Only the local
authority can inspect someone else's work for the
purposes of Part P.

It does not require
any particular person to do the job. DIY is still perfectly acceptable,
as long as approval is obtained from a certified person.

It must be obtained from the LA if the person is not
in one of the self-certify organisations. The council
can subcontract the work, and in that case the sub-
contractor does not have to belong to one of the
Part P self-certify organisations (since this doesn't
count as a self-certify). The council are not allowed
to charge you for this inspection (other than the
regular building control fee). Again, several councils
were charging for the inspection in spite of being
told not to by ODPM, but this is now explicitly
forbidden in the reissued Part P.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Joe writes:
snip
It must be obtained from the LA if the person is not
in one of the self-certify organisations.

TFT

that was my understanding, & having just reread the new Part P,
paragraphs 1.18 to 1.29 on pages 11 & 12, still is; ie part P
membership is a permit ONLY to DO the installation work & complete
paperwork relevant to your own work - without reference to Bldg
Control.

++new Part P in force from April 2006 available at
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1164183

So Chris Booker stands to get his money back.......

But presumably Joe's comment "DIY is still perfectly acceptable,
as long as approval is obtained from a certified person" still stands
under the "newer" Part P regs?

thankyousam wrote:
But presumably Joe's comment "DIY is still perfectly acceptable,
as long as approval is obtained from a certified person" still stands
under the "newer" Part P regs?

That's not what the regs say 1.18 to 1.20 (page 11/12) exempt
notification to building control ONLY when the installer ACTUALLY DOING
the job is a Part P scheme member.

Otherwise, as explicitly stated in paragraphs 1.21 to 1.29, the work
must be done under the aegis of local authority Building Control
The local authority must be notified before work starts. Anyone can
do the work and the local authority BC is responsible for assuring the
work on completion. It may rely on the person doing the work or it can
use ANYONE else (including its own BCO) it chooses to sign the work off
- there's no requirement that the person should be a Part P scheme
member.

In short a Part P scheme membership is a permit to undertake on a
commercial basis home electrical work - and complete associated
paperwork for the job in hand, such as test schedules and BS7671
certificates - without prior notification to the local authority.

It is NOT a licence to supervise or oversee other people's work NOR a
qualification to test or sign BS7671 certificates EXCEPT for YOUR OWN
work.

DIY is completely acceptable AND completely outside Part P schemes, but
Building Control must be brought in from the start (and fee paid).

Do not be confused by the term 'approved inspector' in reg 1.21.
These people are a rare breed and do building control work in place of
the local authority Building Control Department. The title has nothing
to with membership of a part P scheme.