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My gripe is with Part P legislation for electricians. Any consumer who has certain types of electrical work (i.e. rewire) carried out in his house needs to make sure that this is either notified in advance to the building control authorities or that an electrician who can self certify is employed for the job.
In other words the consumer has to carry the can of complying with the legislation. The Government does nothing to fight cowboy tradesmen so it introduces rules for the consumer rather than for the electricians.
It is not easy to find good electricians at best of times and now you have to find someone who is able to self-certify work under Part P or you will have to incur expensive fees when involving building control. You may know a very competent electrician but if this person has not paid to join the racket of self certifying associations, you are at risk of prosecution if you employ this individual on a job.
Not that these associations provide the consumer with any protection. I know people who have not been able to sack dodgy (Part P certified) electricians from their homes for fear of not getting a certificate for Part P compliance. This is because one of the rules of Part P is that no one electrician can certify work carried out by another electrician. How convenient and helpful!
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My husband is a dam good electrician yet why should he have to pay an ( organisation) approximately 500/600 pounds every year for them to tell him that he is competent. He has his own company but because he needed an electrician regularly he did a 3 year course and left with a string of distinction results which show him to be just that a superb electrician. Yet even with these certificates he still cannot certify any job that he installs.
He carries out work to a level of safety that he would apply to his own property and family with safety being foremost next to cleanliness neatness and a reasonable cost to the customer.Is he unique? Why should these organisations profit from these professionals who have taken the time and trouble plus loss of wages in doing these necessary learning skills.
Surely ones local council could set up a scheme whereby those persons who hold the paperwork to prove their ability could be issued with their Part P certificate.My husband feels let down and also feels that he has wasted 3 years of learning. He has his own little company with my brother and the amount of work covered in a year does not warrant this high fee.
20/02/12 Anonymous
He carries out work to a level of safety that he would apply to his own property and family with safety being foremost next to cleanliness neatness and a reasonable cost to the customer.Is he unique? Why should these organisations profit from these professionals who have taken the time and trouble plus loss of wages in doing these necessary learning skills.
Surely ones local council could set up a scheme whereby those persons who hold the paperwork to prove their ability could be issued with their Part P certificate.My husband feels let down and also feels that he has wasted 3 years of learning. He has his own little company with my brother and the amount of work covered in a year does not warrant this high fee.
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Part P was only brought in to have a paper trail of how much cash electricians are making on the job. It's not to provide a better quality of service. The funny part is you can go into an industrial workspace filled with hazards and work on installations without joining any scheme. Now that all the expensive jobs domestically require a certificate to be logged with the local authority/scheme they have a rough idea of the taxes that should be paid. Im guessing it came about when everybody was announcing electricians making 80-100k a year salary and putting in a return for 25k.
25/10/11 johnny5
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I am fully approved contractor and yes its a gamble who attends your house registered or not ethical electricians are hard to find. I worked with companies the electricians did not care and even falsified test results. Now they are even approve contractors working for big named companies. We who work with moral ethics are penalise as we abide by the rules none of the organisations care
30/05/11 titos
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I'm an industrial electronics engineer and deemed a "competent person" under the Electricity at Work regs (before health-enforced retirement I used to work on power electronics such as thyristor drives) yet despite being deemed competent to work on high-energy circuits at up to 1,000 volts I can't replace the consumer unit in a friends house without having my work "inspected" by some snot-nosed kid in a cheap suit who's been on a week's "course". No wonder UK plc is going down the tubes - all proper engineers are retiring/emigrating.
16/01/11 Disgruntled
5
I am a fully qualified electrician qualified to hnc standard with 34 years uninterupted service as an electrician, I have run my own business since 1991, everything used to be so easy, someone wanted some wiring doing, they phoned up an electrician, the job was compand taking leted in the vast majority of cases to everyones satisfaction, then five years ago the labour government introduced the part p of the building regulations, this relates basically to your domestic wiring, in short it has been made law to only have your wiring done by a competant person, in the governments eyes this is anyone who has paid the money to go on a ridiculous expensive course, having paid the price years ago during a five year apprenticeship and attending every new iee regulations course over the years, I have refused to attend an overly expensive relatively meaningless course that is only intended to create an income for a tax mad government, I am sure consumers would rather a time served tradesman with over thirty years experience to do their wiring however what consumers are quite often getting is a plumber or a kitchen fitter or a tiler who have been on a very expensive six day course and are now described by the government as competant, consumers dont be misled part p registration is not a gurantee of a competant tradesman
15/04/10 dragonspark
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I completed a 2 year course at electrical technical college.
Joined the Royal Navy and completed 12 years before becoming an Weapons Electrical Petty Officer. A good many years experienced at this rank ensuring lives, expensive, and dangerous equipment was well maintained.
I left the forces a short time ago with the view to continuing in my trade until Part P surfaced.
Employment...self employed or otherwise; I found I would have to retrain to qualify the Part P??!
I have no intention of paying fees year on year just to be Part P Certified for the good of the bureaucrats. So I am now redundant and a drain rather than an asset to UK.
The other madness is that this will get the cowboys in ever more to keep the price down OR householders will not bother to keep their electrical installations up to date because of the prohibitive expense incurred paying Nu-Labour's extra stealth tax.
08/04/10 Jack
Joined the Royal Navy and completed 12 years before becoming an Weapons Electrical Petty Officer. A good many years experienced at this rank ensuring lives, expensive, and dangerous equipment was well maintained.
I left the forces a short time ago with the view to continuing in my trade until Part P surfaced.
Employment...self employed or otherwise; I found I would have to retrain to qualify the Part P??!
I have no intention of paying fees year on year just to be Part P Certified for the good of the bureaucrats. So I am now redundant and a drain rather than an asset to UK.
The other madness is that this will get the cowboys in ever more to keep the price down OR householders will not bother to keep their electrical installations up to date because of the prohibitive expense incurred paying Nu-Labour's extra stealth tax.
3
Apprentice 7 Years, 50 years as a Spark, Worked on HV, LV, ELV and DC Systems. Designed and planned and installed large commercial and industrial installations.I am a Chartered Electrical Engineer, now I cannot put a socket in my kitchen without giving money every year to a jumped up Certifying Body who no one knows of. Not only that they now change the Regs every year to ensure annual course revenue. PART P the best reason NOT to be an Electrician.
24/01/10 DIL
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I am trying to build a new house and have been delayed for months then cost me a couple of thousand Quid through this new crazy government legislation, not only just the 'part p' but we have to have a land investigation to tell you there is no gasses under the sub strata then when there is no gas you still have to put a membrane in. Then there is the 'ter/der calcs' whereby you have to pay someone to calculate the energy efficiency of a house before it is built, then pay for another calc after it is built. Then you have to have the house 'Pressure tested'. god only knows why?
I had to scour the country to find a competent qualified person to do this as it seems the government has brought in the legislation with little thought to who is going to service them.
It is no wonder that they have become unelectable and some body threw an egg at a certain government minister, they should have thrown the whole crate.
10/09/09 george orwell
I had to scour the country to find a competent qualified person to do this as it seems the government has brought in the legislation with little thought to who is going to service them.
It is no wonder that they have become unelectable and some body threw an egg at a certain government minister, they should have thrown the whole crate.
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Married to an apprenticed/Certified/30 years as an electrician- Sorry ELECTRICIANS do not exist anymore- wonder who is most competent- the Government who seem to know nothing about electrics or the 'Scheme Providers' who's scheme provides nothing but confusion to the homeowner, but abuses electicians by putting money into THEIR pockets!!!
When will the government realise that they have ki11ed TRUE electricians and opened the floodgates to electrical imitations. Sadly the honourable concept of Part P has been ravaged by the greed of the Scheme providers - The equivalent of the monetary greed of the banking system??
When will the Government learn that by adding monetary gains to any regulation they open the floodgates to the vultures- They may appear as saviours to the concept- But they are the death of the ideal- SADLY in this case they are the death of over a century of Electrical brains and innovators.
19/08/09 Death by regulation
When will the government realise that they have ki11ed TRUE electricians and opened the floodgates to electrical imitations. Sadly the honourable concept of Part P has been ravaged by the greed of the Scheme providers - The equivalent of the monetary greed of the banking system??
When will the Government learn that by adding monetary gains to any regulation they open the floodgates to the vultures- They may appear as saviours to the concept- But they are the death of the ideal- SADLY in this case they are the death of over a century of Electrical brains and innovators.
5
im 26 and just and although im not an electrician myself but working in electronics I am about 6 months into a course at my local college which im really struggling fund my self as its working out at about £1000 a year and is a 3-4 year course. once you have done a course you can see why they are charging so much as the theory side of the electrical principles is really hard and not for the faint hearted. so assuming these guys have done a propper course and not something dodgy on the internet then they not only carry the skills but also the technical know how too.
I do think poor workmanship is down to the few lazy ones or under skilled that need a good kick up the a**e because they are getting lazy in their jobs.
08/02/08 Dave
I do think poor workmanship is down to the few lazy ones or under skilled that need a good kick up the a**e because they are getting lazy in their jobs.
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I think the main problem is that anyone willing to make an effort and do a good job is fed up of being insulted by people who feel it is their right to be rude just because they are having a bad day/feel like it.
06/02/08 Why rudeness?
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Hi Youthful Griper
Thanks for your last post, very interesting reading I reckon we are a minority because we would pride ourselves on the quality of our workmanship rather than the profit involved.
Another reason (I'm sure you realise this in your job and no offence to you whatsoever) but real skills like Electrics and Plumbing are in demand in more desirable countries, like Canada and Australia so hopefully I can emigrate as well!
Cheers mate
06/02/08 Vocation Nation!
Thanks for your last post, very interesting reading I reckon we are a minority because we would pride ourselves on the quality of our workmanship rather than the profit involved.
Another reason (I'm sure you realise this in your job and no offence to you whatsoever) but real skills like Electrics and Plumbing are in demand in more desirable countries, like Canada and Australia so hopefully I can emigrate as well!
Cheers mate
4
I'm up in West Yorkshire and the scenario is pretty much the same - plenty of call for qualified and skilled people but not many opportunities if you want to start out... unless you're 16 and just left school with very few GCSE's. I currently work for a national health-care institution. No prizes for guessing which one! I'm on around £2k more than yourself. This goes up each year but not sure how much longer I can stick it out as I've been here... it'll be 4 years come July. There are some great people here and some not so great people and if you love attending meetings, you'll fit right in!
I don't want to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire either. There are some days I could just waltz in, hand in my notice and be done with it but it's what happens next. Can't do that without a back-up.
Watching such programmes like House of Horror and Rogue Traders, it really does make you wonder why people want to be cowboy outfits, obviously motivated by money and not the fact they can be satisfied by a job well done.
I hope everything turns out well and if we do end up being electricians - best get that Part P Certification!
05/02/08 Youthful Griper
I don't want to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire either. There are some days I could just waltz in, hand in my notice and be done with it but it's what happens next. Can't do that without a back-up.
Watching such programmes like House of Horror and Rogue Traders, it really does make you wonder why people want to be cowboy outfits, obviously motivated by money and not the fact they can be satisfied by a job well done.
I hope everything turns out well and if we do end up being electricians - best get that Part P Certification!
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Hi Youthful Gripper, I totally agree with you about being stuck in a rut and your right about the lack of jobs in certain areas, the problem is there is plently of demand for decent skilled trademen but very few oppotunities to actually start training.
On the plus side I'm sure that they would rather employ someone like you or I with a few years employment experience rather than someone fresh out of school....I hope!
Also most newly trained plumbers/electricians are starting at £15-16,000 a year (where I live in Essex) so thats more than I make now (£12,000) so depending on your current earnings you could be in for a pay rise to switch jobs!
I think we should "make the jump" ASAP!
Best of luck getting married mate, All the best for the future.
05/02/08 Vocation Nation
On the plus side I'm sure that they would rather employ someone like you or I with a few years employment experience rather than someone fresh out of school....I hope!
Also most newly trained plumbers/electricians are starting at £15-16,000 a year (where I live in Essex) so thats more than I make now (£12,000) so depending on your current earnings you could be in for a pay rise to switch jobs!
I think we should "make the jump" ASAP!
Best of luck getting married mate, All the best for the future.
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