ESQCR (The Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations) and BS7671

Is this causing any problem that requires the effort of new legislation being laid before Parliament ? If so then the way for an individual to kick it off is to talk to their MP.

Generally legislation is always tied to a specific version of any professional code or regulation, so that the letter of UK law is not being changed by bodies not directly  answerable to parliament or indirectly to the electorate.

The prosecution decision as to if some practice breaks the law or not, does not, and must not,  change when the JPEL committee or an equivalent, sit down and draft an amendment, unless that meeting is subject to parliamentary oversight, and the changes are granted royal assent etc.(the light touch way of doing this without a full debate is a statutory instrument, where some of that authority is derogated to a minster, but there is still supposed to be be full cost benefit analysis and impact assessment unless its a national emergency.)

The alternative, not permitted in the UK,  is what the legal profession refer to as Ambulatory Legislation, where for example it might suddenly become illegal for a DNO to connect a supply to an installation without AFDDs, when the week before it wasn't, without any of the due legal process to see if this step change was proportionate and in the national interest.

The side effect is that by the time things do go through and get royal assent, they are normally a few years behind the curve, but the long process also ensures everyone knows changes are coming and can prepare.

In reality, as any installation to the later standard does not fail an earlier one (except perhaps one with 2.51m reach to  bathroom sockets) its not a problem if folk work to the newer issue, it will still be considered to have met or exceeded the minimum requirement.

Mike.

Is this causing any problem that requires the effort of new legislation being laid before Parliament ? If so then the way for an individual to kick it off is to talk to their MP.

Generally legislation is always tied to a specific version of any professional code or regulation, so that the letter of UK law is not being changed by bodies not directly  answerable to parliament or indirectly to the electorate.

The prosecution decision as to if some practice breaks the law or not, does not, and must not,  change when the JPEL committee or an equivalent, sit down and draft an amendment, unless that meeting is subject to parliamentary oversight, and the changes are granted royal assent etc.(the light touch way of doing this without a full debate is a statutory instrument, where some of that authority is derogated to a minster, but there is still supposed to be be full cost benefit analysis and impact assessment unless its a national emergency.)

The alternative, not permitted in the UK,  is what the legal profession refer to as Ambulatory Legislation, where for example it might suddenly become illegal for a DNO to connect a supply to an installation without AFDDs, when the week before it wasn't, without any of the due legal process to see if this step change was proportionate and in the national interest.

The side effect is that by the time things do go through and get royal assent, they are normally a few years behind the curve, but the long process also ensures everyone knows changes are coming and can prepare.

In reality, as any installation to the later standard does not fail an earlier one (except perhaps one with 2.51m reach to  bathroom sockets) its not a problem if folk work to the newer issue, it will still be considered to have met or exceeded the minimum requirement.

Mike.

The HSE refer to ESQR 2002 but ESQR has had some updates since 2002, eg


2003/2004: Various technical amendments to schedules.
2006 (Amendment): Extended scope to offshore waters (GB Territorial Sea and Renewable Energy Zone), updated British Standard definitions, and added provisions for tree-related supply interruptions.
2013 (Amendment): Further technical updates, according to www.legislation.gov.uk/.../schedules


There are also other things like

Rented Sector Safety (2025–2026): New regulations for the Social Rented Sector came into force on November 1, 2025, with full compliance for existing tenancies required by May 1, 2026