Why the silence on Part P?

[tired of it all]

Although I am new here, a quick trawl through the search facility tell me that there has been little comment on Part P recently. Given the criticism of it in the past, why is that? Has everybody accepted that it is here to stay, or have people found ways around it. I have met lots of contractors who are totally cheesed off with it, so where is the effective protest movement? 60,000 electricans in the UK, that's a lot of votes in election year!

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Its been with us a few years now. Once a building reg is implemented it is never going to go away. No matter how much kicking and screaming went on amongst Electricians who were moaning about it (myself included) we had to accept it as it was.

Times move on and to be honest its not as bad as it was painted at the outset, most of us just accept and get on with it, so i guess that is why the for and against Part P debates have died off.

Nowadays it seems to be posts on which scheme to join.

I will leave you to search on that one, it gets done to death on this and other forums.

Cheers............Howard

 

[tired of it all]

Don't confuse the existence of the Part P amendment with the administration of the scheme. You could, for example, have an arrangement where you pay £50 a year to register with your local Building Control, after proving you are competent and showing certificates etc. You then simply send them a letter whenever you start a notifiable job. They could choose to inspect any of your jobs at short notice, and being local they would soon get to know who is competent and who isn't. This system could be financed in different ways, such as a small increase on VAT for electrical fittings; this would have the added benefit (from a contractors point of view) of discouraging DIY electrical work.

My feeling is that Part P is now seen as inevitable as death or taxes, but actually now is a good time to put pressure on to get it changed or scrapped. The problem is that the British working class is too supine to take any action; easier to let off steam on a forum like this than email an MP! (Not referring to you by the way, just a general remark!)

 

[fog]

Help
have read the FAQ about use the "NEW POST" link to put up a new post cant find a new post button/link can anybody help

 

[acat]

Bottom right hand corner you will find a search button for the part of the forum you want to go to select that and when the page comes up you have your button top lefthand side




Chris

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Don't confuse the existence of the Part P amendment with the administration of the scheme. You could, for example, have an arrangement where you pay £50 a year to register with your local Building Control, after proving you are competent and showing certificates etc. You then simply send them a letter whenever you start a notifiable job. They could choose to inspect any of your jobs at short notice, and being local they would soon get to know who is competent and who isn't. This system could be financed in different ways, such as a small increase on VAT for electrical fittings; this would have the added benefit (from a contractors point of view) of discouraging DIY electrical work.

My feeling is that Part P is now seen as inevitable as death or taxes, but actually now is a good time to put pressure on to get it changed or scrapped. The problem is that the British working class is too supine to take any action; easier to let off steam on a forum like this than email an MP! (Not referring to you by the way, just a general remark!)

Good reply mate, and i agree with you. I can think of several ways to administer the scheme, all cheaper, fairer and better than the present set up. But as with all things in this country we cant do cheap and sensible, we have to pay through our noses to line the coffers of various establishments and not our pockets. And people with sensible ideas like ourselves are not allowed to come up with the solutions.

When Part P was first thought about, the powers that be should have asked the rank and file Electricians for their ideas and opinions on how best to implement some sort of control, as it is we who have to carry out the work to comply with all building regulations........but what do we know, we are only Electricians, not pen pushers in ivory towers with our noses in the public trough. I mean electric! it cant be that hard can it, you just put a switch on the wall, a fitting on the ceiling, and press the switch and the light comes on....what can be hard about that......

 

[tired of it all]

Totally in agreement Sir Kit, so get your MP's email address from his website and get typing!

 

[andyb]

You could, for example, have an arrangement where you pay £50 a year to register with your local Building Control,

How many local authorities? with me that is about 7 or 8, £350-£400 per year, about what I'm paying now.

after proving you are competent and showing certificates etc.

How does showing certificates prove you are competent? Read some of the questions on this forum from people going for their 1st assesment. All with certificates.

You then simply send them a letter whenever you start a notifiable job.

That's easy, I did 3 jobs today, I'm going to 2 tomorrow and on Thursday, I wont be doing any on Friday because I'll be writing letters for all the jobs I'm doing next week. And what about call outs.

They could choose to inspect any of your jobs at short notice

How short? I hope that they don't call Friday because I'm writing letters all day.

and being local they would soon get to know who is competent and who isn't

How?

. This system could be financed in different ways, such as a small increase on VAT for electrical fittings; this would have the added benefit (from a contractors point of view) of discouraging DIY electrical work.

How would this discourage DIY, The extra cost you've put on will encourage people to chance there arm.

 

[tired of it all]

Interesting points. Personally I think part p should be scrapped - I think there is enough existing legislation to cover cowboys (Health and Safety at Work act, Electricity at Work Regulations, plus general legal third party liability). Another non-enforceable peice of legislation is pointless. If the government really wanted to improve electrical safety in the home, they would go for a serious public information campaign telling people what to expect from kosher electricians. If they also came down hard on cowboys and fraudsters, the message might eventually get across.

Perhaps it would be better to campaign for complete abandonment of part p, but I am still interested in workable alternatives, so your remarks are a good contribution. It's probably a good idea to have a few alternatives to suggest.

By the way, as far as I can discover, the domestic accident rate has gone up since part p came in, so that makes it even more pointless. Unfortuately most sparkies seem too apathetic to protest about it.

 

[sparkdog]

I notice the live bath plughole or taps accident never goes away despite part P.Used to see it in the newspapers years ago but it still happens.

 

[JulianC]

I'm all for Part P if it is enforceable, tightens up the industry, gets rid of cowboys, cuts down on DIYer bodges and generally improves electrical safety.

But it doesn't.

 

[deanovilla]

lve been in the scheme since it started and l dont see no changes from before ,how many cowboys have you heard of being done for their work ?? my wholesaler told me he knew that this so called sparky had got someone else to sit his 17th and his assessment and lm told work still being carried out in old colours so it cant be spotted as new worl (look at the prices on ebay for this cable) photo id might help with driving licence and passport .it wont go away as too many people making money out of us . lm part-time as l had a brain haemorage and cant do full-time but l still have to pay full wack my wholesaler has even stopped selling to diyers as he 's fed up with them coming back after they have blown up the item and try to say its faulty!! god l remember when if you didnt have an account (with headed sheet) you didnt get served , l dont envy the new sparks , especially the ones who have done their time. l have no time for these 5 day wonders , cant wait for the new 5 day course for gynaecology! you know just to keep me hands in, and before anyone has a go at me lv had one who while doing his course was ringing me up for the answers and he,s he passed that but he's failed his assessment twice as he cant ring me !!!

 

[Spudnik]

Fellas,

We have closed many threads on this subject and i really dont want to do another.

Now, before it gets heated and yes, there are a lot of opinions out there i agree, but please keep it nice.

Ta.