Roberta Blackman-Woods MP: Retailers ‘vital to electrical safety’
Roberta Blackman-Woods says that there are genuine concerns within the electrical safety sector regarding changes to Part P of Building Regulations.
Despite considerable trepidation over the proposed changes to Part P of the Building Regulations and a watering down of notifiable work, the government decided to press ahead and the regulation was amended in April.
But while the changes have been made, concerns over electrical safety remain.
After attending the
Electrical Safety Council’s Industry Summit in March, it became clear to me that the industry’s concerns are in large part due to the distinct lack of evidence about how these changes might impact upon consumers.
These changes are coming into force at a very bad time; economic pressures may mean that householders are tempted to try and cut corners by using an unregistered electrician or trying to illegally carry out risky home DIY themselves.
As a result retailers have a vital role to play in increasing public awareness of Part P, and of what might go wrong if things aren’t properly installed. Getting big retailers such as B&Q on board is critical to bridging that gap and helping people to understand the importance of getting someone qualified to carry out the work.
It’s difficult to understand the government’s reasoning for the changes when there’s so little hard evidence to back them up. But now that the government has committed to the amendments they must heed the recommendations laid out in the
ESC’s new White Paper, and take action to get retailers and others to promote safety. Some people might ignore the risks if they don’t fully understand them, so by working with retailers to get messages across at the point of sale this gap can be bridged. If retailers can provide more information then public understanding of who is and isn’t registered will begin to increase. Too often it takes accidents for action to be taken and for safety requirements to be raised - I hope that in this case the government takes action before someone is hurt.
Nothing can now be gained from dwelling on the decision to cut Part P, but it is crucial we learn from this process to ensure that any changes to essential safety regulations are based upon proper evidence, and that we work with retailers to do all we can to raise public awareness of Part P.
