18th Edition

Except for a few cases where other laws (examples include the new one about rented property, or the ESCQR) refer to a specific edition of the wiring regs. there is no legal duty for anything else to comply to BS7671.


But, and it is a very big but, there is a requirement for it to be safe, and if it came to it, safe not in your judgement, but in the eyes of the HSE and/or an expert witness if there was an accident.


One very good way of making sure it is deemed safe in such a case, is for it to meet the current edition of the wiring regs. If it doesn't then the person responsible for the installation needs to be able to show that it does meet a suitable standard of safety in respect of the bits that do not comply.

Your role as inspector is to pass this information on, to the owners so that risk assessment can be done,and the risk can be mitigated, either by changing the sockets or showing that they are in some other way not accessible to the same degree as if they were shutterred.

(In your example the shutters thing is all about children's fingers when the plug is removed and the live socket is left open. If the sockets are in some way locked in the connected position, or locked shut when not in use, then one may consider that this very specific risk has been removed in another way, which may be considered equivalent)

The short answer is it is not always OK to leave things as they were, but it often is, it is a case by case basis, and relies on some solid engineering judgement based on local knowledge.


Mike

Except for a few cases where other laws (examples include the new one about rented property, or the ESCQR) refer to a specific edition of the wiring regs. there is no legal duty for anything else to comply to BS7671.


But, and it is a very big but, there is a requirement for it to be safe, and if it came to it, safe not in your judgement, but in the eyes of the HSE and/or an expert witness if there was an accident.


One very good way of making sure it is deemed safe in such a case, is for it to meet the current edition of the wiring regs. If it doesn't then the person responsible for the installation needs to be able to show that it does meet a suitable standard of safety in respect of the bits that do not comply.

Your role as inspector is to pass this information on, to the owners so that risk assessment can be done,and the risk can be mitigated, either by changing the sockets or showing that they are in some other way not accessible to the same degree as if they were shutterred.

(In your example the shutters thing is all about children's fingers when the plug is removed and the live socket is left open. If the sockets are in some way locked in the connected position, or locked shut when not in use, then one may consider that this very specific risk has been removed in another way, which may be considered equivalent)

The short answer is it is not always OK to leave things as they were, but it often is, it is a case by case basis, and relies on some solid engineering judgement based on local knowledge.


Mike