from elsewhere, FWIW
 

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/certifysparks/

The colleague who set this up says:

A couple of years ago the UK Government passed legislation that has the
effect of making it _illegal_ for people to carry out electrical work in
their own homes, without involving the Local Authority and paying a
hefty inspection fee (typically hundreds of pounds). The only people who
will be able to avoid inspection are those deemed competent by a small
number of electrical trade bodies, such as the NICEIC. Understandably,
these trade bodies have refused to create a test of competence for
homeowners. It is only possible to be competent if you happen to work
for one of their members. Academic qualifications and practical
experience count for nothing.

I am petitioning the Prime Minister to take this power away from the
trade bodies, and replace it with an independent, national competence
test for electrical work, accessible to anybody. If you are a DIY
enthusiast, or expect to carry out electrical work in your own home at
any point in the future, please sign my petition, at

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/certifysparks/

It will only take two minutes of your time. Please feel free to contact
me if you are uncertain about the issues involved.


--
geoff

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

raden wrote:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/certifysparks/

The colleague who set this up says:

A couple of years ago the UK Government passed legislation that has the
effect of making it _illegal_ for people to carry out electrical work in
their own homes, without involving the Local Authority and paying a
hefty inspection fee (typically hundreds of pounds). The only people who
will be able to avoid inspection are those deemed competent by a small
number of electrical trade bodies, such as the NICEIC. Understandably,
these trade bodies have refused to create a test of competence for
homeowners. It is only possible to be competent if you happen to work
for one of their members. Academic qualifications and practical
experience count for nothing.

I am petitioning the Prime Minister to take this power away from the
trade bodies, and replace it with an independent, national competence
test for electrical work, accessible to anybody. If you are a DIY
enthusiast, or expect to carry out electrical work in your own home at
any point in the future, please sign my petition, at

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/certifysparks/

It will only take two minutes of your time. Please feel free to contact
me if you are uncertain about the issues involved.


Done!

But I don't think that these online petitions do much good except for
eventually getting a reply, saying that while they hear what you say -
they are not going to change anything.

Maybe big business needs to get involved for things to change.

Perhaps B&Q, Wickes, Homebase and others could be persuaded to make the
petition available for physical signing in their stores and possibly to
lobby for changes themselves. They, surely, must have lost a loads of
trade now that a lot of householders have been frightened off D-I-Y
electrical work by this ill-considered legislation.

Just an idea ...

Steve

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

In article ,
Steve writes:
Done!

But I don't think that these online petitions do much good except for
eventually getting a reply, saying that while they hear what you say -
they are not going to change anything.

Maybe big business needs to get involved for things to change.

Perhaps B&Q, Wickes, Homebase and others could be persuaded to make the
petition available for physical signing in their stores and possibly to
lobby for changes themselves. They, surely, must have lost a loads of
trade now that a lot of householders have been frightened off D-I-Y
electrical work by this ill-considered legislation.

I doubt 90% of their customers even know the legislation exists,
and wouldn't care even if they did.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Steve writes:
Done!

But I don't think that these online petitions do much good except for
eventually getting a reply, saying that while they hear what you say -
they are not going to change anything.

Maybe big business needs to get involved for things to change.

Perhaps B&Q, Wickes, Homebase and others could be persuaded to make the
petition available for physical signing in their stores and possibly to
lobby for changes themselves. They, surely, must have lost a loads of
trade now that a lot of householders have been frightened off D-I-Y
electrical work by this ill-considered legislation.

I doubt 90% of their customers even know the legislation exists,
and wouldn't care even if they did.


True. I wish that I did not know about it!

This could be a way of telling those lucky people who keep their head in
the sand that the Government has done the dirty on them ;-)

Steve

Steve

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

In message , raden
writes

I am petitioning the Prime Minister to take this power away from the
trade bodies, and replace it with an independent, national competence
test for electrical work, accessible to anybody. If you are a DIY
enthusiast, or expect to carry out electrical work in your own home at
any point in the future, please sign my petition, at

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/certifysparks/

Nicely worded.

I suppose the *up side* of trade body involvement is the CPD (continuing
professional development) that this government has been pushing for the
last ten years.

Maybe the certificate should be restricted to *own home* and for the
life of whatever IEE regulations are current at the time of the test?

regards

--
Tim Lamb

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

I suppose the *up side* of trade body involvement is the CPD (continuing
professional development) that this government has been pushing for the
last ten years.

Maybe the certificate should be restricted to *own home* and for the
life of whatever IEE regulations are current at the time of the test?

Regulation of competence *should* be a matter for the IEE. However all
the IEE manage to do for the exorbitant membership fees they charge me
is maintain a marble museum on the Strand - they do nothing of real
benefit to members.

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

In message om,
" writes

I suppose the *up side* of trade body involvement is the CPD (continuing
professional development) that this government has been pushing for the
last ten years.

Maybe the certificate should be restricted to *own home* and for the
life of whatever IEE regulations are current at the time of the test?

Regulation of competence *should* be a matter for the IEE. However all
the IEE manage to do for the exorbitant membership fees they charge me
is maintain a marble museum on the Strand - they do nothing of real
benefit to members.

They used to do *training* at the marble museum whenever a new set of
regs. were introduced. You need to park at the Savoy though:-)

regards


--
Tim Lamb

from elsewhere, FWIW
 

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:45:03 GMT Steve wrote :
Perhaps B&Q, Wickes, Homebase and others could be persuaded to make the
petition available for physical signing in their stores and possibly to
lobby for changes themselves. They, surely, must have lost a loads of
trade now that a lot of householders have been frightened off D-I-Y
electrical work by this ill-considered legislation.

If it had affected their sales they would have reduced the shelf space
accordingly and given it to other things. No evidence of that round here.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk