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Regulation of electricians in Scotland: research report. Research conducted by Pye Tait.

Sparkingchip

Reading the report I put myself into the category of having had more than my fair share of defective installations to repair.


A quote from the report:


It would be fair to say, we feel, that the skilled electricians responding to the Call for Evidence came from that section of the occupation which had had more than its fair share of defective installations to repair and, perhaps, more experience of the impacts of low-competence operatives. 



As such they might have more cause to be sympathetic to the concept of increasing regulation and to any change which would protect their skilled capabilities from being simulated by lesser-skilled people.


The problem is the author of the report could not actually decide who is doing dodgy electrical work in people’s homes.

The report.


 Andy Betteridge






 


  • 0
    Another quote:


    However, attempting to get the best financial deal, and a lack of technical understanding, can sometimes lead to householders taking on tradespeople who are not qualified or up-to-date, or who compromise on quality and safety for other reasons. Regardless of the level of qualification and up-to-date-ness tradespeople may also fall into categories such as "honest but incompetent" and "dishonest rogue traders AND incompetent".


    Andy B.
  • 0
    Interesting read. Perhaps 7000 installations having their defects corrected each year in Scotland is reasonable. I'm not sure it is reliable to expect folk who have had work fixed to put an accurate assessment of if a fire was likely or short circuit or whatever.  If their judgement was good enough to answer that question well,   they'd have probably said something while the original job was in still progress, or done it themselves.

    Also, and with a weather eye on the discussions about what code various defects should have,  where opinions diverge widely, it may be the electrician no 2 comes in and says 'this is all dangerous and must be ripped out immediately' -scaring the customer into a bill for thousands, and yet another reviewer might have said  that some of it was actually OK,  and just a few rough edges needed tidying up..

    "Defective" is a bit of a wide target, and I appreciate they are attempting to grade it by severity. There is a large difference between a cable that has set fire to a floorboard due to gross under-sizing, and a ring main that is a bit long on volt drop , or a 16A oven on a 32A breaker.



    And then as you say, there is an assumption that all the bad work is DIY or unqualified workers, In quite a few cases I suspect it isn't as simple as that,and the situation is an accumulation of things done by more than one person over time, without looking at the rest properly.


    I'm not sure that this report really has enough information to make an informed recommendation, though that does not stop it.
  • 0
    There was a comment from one home owner along the lines that they used the same electrician for many years, so did not know things were dodgy until they got someone else in.


    I smiled quite a few times reading the report.


     Andy B.

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