Need urgent advice please help.

Legally, you are not committing an offence by connecting 3 wires to 3 terminals, anyone can do that, and maintenance folk and kitchen fitters with more learn by experience than certificates do that all the time .

If anyone should do so however is a matter of their own personal competence - which is hard to prove or disprove. It's very easy to say 'oh they were incompetent after all then' after the house burnt down.

If you were plugging in a pre-wired 32A plug, to a pre-wired 32A socket, certainly no-one would blink, as the thought has been put in by whoever fitted it to the cable.
But here you have a greater responsibility, and it sounds to me like you don't 'feel' that you are competent, which is a really bad place to be.

No need to be a fully fledged electrician capable of design of a complete installation for a new build hotel or something of course. However, at the very least I'd expect some instructions to have been given, and if unsure then to do a few under supervision, perhaps back at base, before being let out in the wild, if only to know procedure for..

1) Safe isolation and checking for dead/live

2) Recognition of  adequate cable diameter, and what to do if cables are damaged/ wet.

3) Preparation of wire ends for connections, and

4) How tight to do things up. 

..and loads of  pool specific stuff.

In the modern world I'd expect a record of '1hr basic electrical introduction given by Joe Soap on 05.03.2026' or something to be recorded on your staff  file as well.
If only to satisfy the insurers, and pass the buck from the directors back to you if your work done in their name goes wrong.

' We took reasonable steps to make sure he was suitably instructed, you honour'!

It does not need much, but right now it rather reads like a step may be missing in the process, or your bosses have assumed something about you
' has adequate technical knowledge' that is maybe not the case.

Mike.

Thank you for the in-depth reply Mike.

For starters, those 4 procedures are things that was unaware of, we dont even have a multimeter in the toolbox. So if I'm reading this right, I do not need to be formally given the title of competent through a course or a government body, it can just be through someone that also has learnt on the job too? 

I feel competent simply wiring the 32amp tail from a isolation switch to a hot tub, but I do not feel safe for myself or the customer knowing that the tub hasnt has it's initial verifications as per BS 7671 Regulation 641.1. Is this verification a necessity when wiring into these tubs? 

It all gets un necessarily complicated with things like this. Electrician installs up to isolator but I think they would makes sure that the tests are carried out at the end of the tails leaving the isolator which means all is checked up to that point. The elctrician may or may not have seen the hot tub manufacoiterer's instructions which should give the requisite info regarding tails size. So this would mean that the installation has been installed, inspected and tested up to the ends of the tails and that the tails size etc is correct. This leaves you to simply connect up using the manufacturers direction..

If the electrician has not seen the manufacturers installation instructions and actual product details, then he will only have been able to determine that his installation is satisfactory only up to the isolator. It may be that he has just been asked by the customer for a simple 32A outdoor supply.

I would ask your boss for his approach and confidence in your abilities and knowledge in writing to cover your own backside.

mapj1 said:

Legally, you are not committing an offence by connecting 3 wires to 3 terminals

That may be true in terms of "who is permitted to do the work", but if the connection is not safe and someone gets hurt from the connected product, an offence might have been committed.

Similarly, if a person making the connection gets hurt - either because the supply to the terminals wasn't safe, or there was a problem with the product being connected for some reason, then under EAWR an offence is likely to have been committed.

This is why HSE guidance that I pointed to has simple checks that those making connections or working on domestic appliances should be trained to carry out ... for their own safety, as well as that of users of the product.

Anonymous111 said:

I do not need to be formally given the title of competent through a course or a government body, it can just be through someone that also has learnt on the job too? 

It is for the Employer to risk assess what competence is necessary.

However, I think in this case, having the correct equipment to make the basic checks in EIS35, including safe isolation, and being trained in safe isolation, basic safety checks of the appliance you are installing, and the basics of how to use any test and measurement equipment, e.g. what "looks OK" vs "looks dodgy or faulty" means, is really important for safety.

The industry associations do run courses for installers/maintainers, that appears to include electrical safety for example: www.bishta.co.uk/.../

In case you have not seen or got a copy of the doc Graham links to, it is here (free to download)

 
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/eis35.pdf 

"Safety in electrical testing – service and repair of domestic appliances" and is the HSE advice. Its not quite your situation, but the sort of folk in that line of business do very similar things, and the comments on
They also publish this one, which is similar

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg354.pdf

"Safety in electrical testing
at work"
Both are worth a quick read.

Mike.

The answer to that is a crystal clear 'it all rather depends' .

If the fixed wiring at the site was tested before you got there maybe that makes it OK - so do you or the customer for example get to see the test result sheet from the installer ? If not then some kind of subset of the full tests may be  in order.

If the pool was tested before it got there ? So is there something rather like a PAT certificate ?- I do appreciate its not 'portable' but the same tests  ' is the insulation resistance good, is the earthing conductor unbroken' should still be verified by somebody, maybe you, maybe your warehouse, maybe back at the factory 

If so then no  need to check that.
If both are true, then maybe you don't need to do much other than give the wires a reasonable test tug and a quick look over for the right colours on the right terminals and good metal to metal contact before you tighten the cable grips  and put the covers back on. - assuming the terminal outlay  is easily inspected visually if not then a meter check is better.

If no to any of the above, then how else is that risk mitigated ?

Mike.

If the boss/duty holder does not supply the installer with a GS38 compliant tester (for proving dead well actually NOT LIVE AT TIME OF TEST) or allow them to purchase it and claims expenses then that is a sign for further discussions.  The same hold true for a set of VDE screw drivers and cutters.  Yes we are told to work dead but sometime things happen and VDE is an extra layer of defence/barrier

If cable entry into the rotary isolator is not from the underside/bottom with appropriate outdoor glanding then that is a sign for further discussions.

Thus you may not need to be an electrician to fit the hot tub but you need suitable instruction by a qualified and competent person.

Sidenote.  All connection made outside/outdoors in the UK should be from underside/bottom.  If top entry is used then with time and weather moisture ingress will occur into the enclosure.  Some people call this external influences, other say it is workmanship issue.

The cables always run from the bottom, but as mentioned we do not have any testers, and never have done, nor does an electrician come back to test the tub themselves. From what I've read, when wiring a tub you must legally do initial tests (dead tests and live tests.) before the tub is comissioned and handed to customer. Not one has been tested, can you please verify what I'm saying is true or is it just waffle from Google?

Thank you 

you must legally do

Don't trust everything you read on the internet, especially not AI generated.

There is no law that says "you must test" - BS 7671 say you should, but that's not law. Sometimes the law or guidance suggests that following BS 7671 is an obvious way of doing what's reasonable and so complying with the law - but that's not entirely the same thing as saying BS 7671 is a legal requirement (except in a few special cases where the law does say must meet British Standard (i.e. BS 7671) Requirements - e.g private rented or embedded generation). In many a case it's a bit like the Highway Code - driving in accordance is good and easy way to make sure you stay legal, but doing otherwise may or may not actually be an offence, depending on the exact situation.

  - Andy.

you must legally do

Don't trust everything you read on the internet, especially not AI generated.

There is no law that says "you must test" - BS 7671 say you should, but that's not law. Sometimes the law or guidance suggests that following BS 7671 is an obvious way of doing what's reasonable and so complying with the law - but that's not entirely the same thing as saying BS 7671 is a legal requirement (except in a few special cases where the law does say must meet British Standard (i.e. BS 7671) Requirements - e.g private rented or embedded generation). In many a case it's a bit like the Highway Code - driving in accordance is good and easy way to make sure you stay legal, but doing otherwise may or may not actually be an offence, depending on the exact situation.

  - Andy.