AMK said:

do you not agree that  retrofitting seatbelts and updating electrical installations are smart moves that can significantly enhance safety and align with the latest best practices ?

Well, Andy made the analogy with seatbelts.

I am all for continual improvement of the Wiring Regulations, and even obliging new builds to comply with them, but the gains in risk reduction by modifying an existing installation may be marginal.

Then there comes a stage where updating an installation requires it to be ripped out and start again, which might be likened to buying a new car.

Personally, I feel perfectly safe with my 15th Edn installation and driving a 90-odd year old car - no seatbelts, no air bags, rigid steering column, etc.

Both are in good condition.

Indeed. The addition of seat-belts may not be possible on a car never designed to have them, and the risk is already very low. Before seat-belts and ABS and 100 &1 other technical improvements to cars,  (lane assist, self braking collision avoidance etc) we had about 6000 fatalities and 60000 hospitalizations per year due to road traffic accidents Now we have rather less  than half that. - but its not so simple, as many other things have changed too, streetlights are better, many 'black-spot' junctions have been eliminated, and there are fewer pedestrians and cyclists to hit and children are no longer expected to go out side to play in the street, and the war time generation that got a driving licence before there was such a thing as a driving  test have left the road.Given the no of vehicles that make it from showroom to scrapyard without ever having a significant crash, there are other factors at work that are not seat belts.

In another non-parallel there is no equivalent of part P  no need to work at a state registered garage to do your car repairs for example indeed somethings that are really tightly regulated elsewhere are largely free for all in a car - hydraulics, LPG systems, air con, come to mind.

By all means make the comparison, but it is not perfect.

Back to wiring !

The pass fail limit as to does it need updating really does depend on the situation, and is not really a simple 'its safer' decision that can be made without looking at the use, as it may be safe now, and a new occupant moves in who uses the installation differently and then it isn't.

Mike

• (PS actually I did add rear seatbelts to my first car in the late 1980s, as I was carrying scouts a lot, and it seemed a good idea for them to be attached - but I did it on the basis of my own analysis, not because it was legally compelled.  And if like many  of my friends, I had had no intention of taking back seat passengers, it would have been a waste of money and time better spent on new tyres or brakes in terms of safety improvements Such decisions need to be taken in the round, not in isolation.)