Tea and sympathy or tough luck?

I always harbour a degree of empathy with contractors....been at the coal face myself for many years and I am well aware of the ups and downs.

However, I am not sure that I would warm the teapot and get the buns out in this case.

A contractor friend just completed 112 mid-range dwellings. He and the guys working for him are meticulously neat but far too nonchalant when it comes to regulatory requirements.

The site is complete, not one single EIC asked for or issued. That is until one of the last people to purchase one of the units was a contractor specialising in electrical I+T. That contractor identified the lack of certification and a number of concerning issues in his own home. 

1. 16mm2 tails almost 15m in length supplied directly via an isolator from mains intake in the cubicle recessed in the exterior wall to a remote consumer unit. 100A service head fuse in each property (confirmed by NIE). 

2. Cables enter the consumer unit from the rear without fire stopping. Timber frame house.

3. Ground floor ceilings peppered with downlights with a suggestion that this is unacceptable and

4. No certification issued and no inspection and testing carried out for any of the properties.

  • I think the Emma Shaw case happened in 2007 - so probably pre-dated the requirement for additional protection for concealed cables.

      - Andy.

  • There was no RCD but the box on the EIC for presence of an RCD was ticked.

    We have a very good range of standards for electrical safety but a very low level of compliance due to a lack of competency and a  lower level of integrity. 

    JP

  • Compliance, competency and integrity can be improved in time with checks from CPS (Competent Person Scheme), Building Control and to some extent the HSE.  These onsite visits should be scheduled and unscheduled spot checks.  Experienced and competent inspectors/electricians can sometimes also see on an EICR when they have been done from the van.  A lot of EIC / EICR are done via Napit and NICEIC they could easily do spot check on the documents that are submitted.

    The HSE needs to prosecute more when cases that involve infringement of electrical safety as well as fraudulent EIC/EICRs.  As an example if a sole trader is doing 4 to 6 EICRs in a day on a regular basis then something COULD be amiss if they are doing a 6 to 8 hours day.  Now if they are doing a 12 hour plus day then it May be achievable.

    This is very easy to fix on paper but what needs to happen is people and finances need to be put in place for the extra staff needed to help police the bad practice that SOME (not all) contractors/companies think is OK