It has all been said before,but.

[the pict]

A client has informed me that they only want PAT done every two years from now on, now this is a big place with over 9000 items most of which are accessable by the public, the rest are commercial kitchens and the whole place has every concievable piece of equipment imaginable, now every year there are plenty of fails some of which scare the bejabbers outa me, one sticks in my mind, one of those hot air fire lighters with most of the cable melted through to the copper in four places taped over with those stcky white address lables, most of the fails I repair on the spot or take away and return repaired at no charge, so who prompted this change the HSE inspector thats who, every year is too often he says no mention of the recommended frequency at all, ----- probably some pen pusher who probably thinks Live Neutral and Earth are the latest dance troupe from X factor
Pict

 

[mogga]

More and more clients are pushing for the most extended times allowed

iv got a client of the company sent back a pir saying i had put 1 year where it should be 5 yearly gaffer answered that the installation was in such a bad state that unless every fault was repaired it would remain at annual test ( unexpected back up from gaffer) there are a lot of 2s on it and every main cable from cable head to dbs,contactors pass through individual bush,coupling,bush to db then outgoing cables have lives neutral and earth passing out of individual couplings worst of all this was refittted 3 to 4 years ago

 

[oldtimer]

After many enquiries I bought a PAT tester and signed up to night school for my C&G qualification £750 bucks in total and now I am ready to go not a bolt just a £500 tester sitting in the motor

 

[robd]

had the same today, I mentioned did they want the PAT testing that I'd done last year doing again, oh no so and so at head office says every two years now. What can you do?

 

[Octopus]

Nothing!.

If you as the tester do the tests and recommend a retest after 1 year, and the client ignores you and somebody gets hurt after 15 months its on their heads and insurance.

 

[ian.settle1]

Nothing!.

If you as the tester do the tests and recommend a retest after 1 year, and the client ignores you and somebody gets hurt after 15 months its on their heads and insurance.

Thats why there is a table in the IET COP for In service testing of electrical equipment giving the frequency of testing equipment.

It would be a good one if someone got seriously njured at this place due to the HSE inspector saying it did not need doing that often, who would the HSE decide to prosecute the establishment owner, the tester or their inspector for gross incompentancy for giving such stupid information?

 

[Spazz]

I had this yesterday

Went to a mental health support center to price up a job - saw as I was going around that no equipment had any PAT stickers on them at all and those which did where done 5 years ago.

Extension leads taped with duck tape.


When I asked them if they wanted me to pat test everything they said no, HQ said nothing needs doing anymore, but she thought it was not right, where I reassured her that the recommendations are yearly for public used items. So shes sent the list off saying everything needs PAT testing and they have someone they want to use.

We will see what happens out of that.

I might email he HQ myself as a bystander or get my partner to stating she not seen any PAT stickers on anything in several of their centers, and include a copy of recommendations with it.

Then I will email them in a few days offering my services for PAT at all their centers.

 

[the pict]

I got this comment from one hotel general manager, " I have been told that there us no legal obligation to have PAT done" this came from a HSE official as I have stated, now the statement made by the manager is correct, but that does not absolve him or his organisation of the requirements of the relevant statutory documents or his obligations to comply, what I do not get is this, when I last read the HSE guidelines it was made clear that the HSE " does not offer any speciic advise on how to ensure compliance "only that compliance is required, but try explaining that to some arse whose qualifications are in how to arrange cutlery on a table, if the HSE are going to pretend that they have the nesscesary qualifications to offer advise, advise that is in my opinion counter productive to safety then I think that the IEE publication on T&I of in service equipment should be made a statutory document becuase I do not think your average ofiice manager or the like has the will power to wade though all the stat docs to sift out what he or she needs to do to ensure compliance
Pict

 

[Spazz]

The Pict - your correct its not a legal requirement to have PAT Testing BUT!!:

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states: Both the employer and employee have a duty to ensure the safety of everyone who uses the premise

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state: Every Employer shell make a satiable and sufficient assessment of:
a) The risks to heath & Safety of his employees to which they are exposed while they are at work and
b) The risks to health and Safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking (Reg 3(1))

The Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 state: Every Employer shell ensure that the work equipment is so constructed or adapted as to be suitable for the purpose for which it is used or provided


Question:
If employers and businesses dont PAT test their equipment then what tests do they do to ensure that the equipment they are supplying complies with the above Act and Regulations

Answer:
Nothing - they cant test the Earth Continuity or the Insulation Resistance!


Yes I know that there are another 2 Regulations which this falls under but I cant be bothered to write them out, and the above 3 are the most important!

 

[needasparks]

Think Murdock hit it right, Its down to the customer what they do, if thats how offen they want it done. Were not the PAT police, you can't force someone to do it more offen, thats the goverments job. We can only advise.

 

[ruston]

Have a read of this site and see what advice is been given , It may help to explain the attitudes you have been receiving, especially with regard to office equipment.

Myth: All office equipment must be tested annually

 

[oldtimer]

Amazing how these clowns who are meant to protect the public come out with this stuff what a gutless add so in otherwords we are telling you to that you dont need to get PAT testing every year but at the same time we are not telling you when and how often you should or in other words yes there is cutbacks and we will turn a blind eye if you dont get it done.

We the electricians did not force them to do PAT testing all we did was to make ourselves available to do it so we had to be certified £200 please then buy a (current) book £38 pleasethen buy the PAT tester with all the ad on £475 please O yes and you will need labels and documentation £55 please and funny enough in 2012 we are changing the PAT C&G to 2 or 3 parts so dont worry if you have the old one as we will nail you 5 years down the road to get yourself retrained. Me thinks we need a sparks rally of protest

 

[Spazz]

I love the way HSE recommend that PAT testing is carried out then they stick an ad like that on their site.

I wonder how many people looked hat and didnt bother to open the PDF attachment which explains it all in more detail.

Also how many people will know what makes someone competent.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We have already seen on here how many by public think they are competent to to do house hold electrics and look at how some of them have behaved.

Things are not going to change until someone kills themselves - Im afraid to say[/FONT]

 

[Spazz]

Looking at that it says nothing needs PAT Testing

Then looking at the big 7 page document which is on the right hand side, it says that HSE highly recommends PAT Testing all Class 1 Items every year and these guidelines are only for office equipment and not public used items!

How many people do you think are going to read that 7 page document - NONE!


How Perfetic are the HSE Getting!

 

[ruston]

Yes if you advise them to follow the guidelines in the cop they will think you are a rip off merchant.

I'd rather tell a Judge that I had followed IET COP guidelines than I had skimped because I wanted to save a few quid.