Businesses of all kinds must ensure that their premises do not pose health and safety risks to employees, visitors and members of the general public as far as is practicably possible, with measures put in place to mitigate risks where they cannot be eradicated completely.
Where electrical equipment is concerned, the Electricity at Work Regulations state that any equipment that could potentially cause injury must be kept in a safe condition. However, these regulations do not explicitly state how this must be ensured.
So, while PAT testing – where electrical appliances and equipment are examined by a competent person – is a good way to ensure that everything continues to be safe to use, note that:
- It is not a legal requirement
- You don’t have to do it every year.
However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t prioritise PAT testing, as some defects can only be detected with more in-depth checks than you’ll achieve with a simple visual assessment.
In fact, best practice for businesses with electrical safety is to adopt a combined approach, where PAT testing and visual checks are carried out concurrently.
This ensures that all possible defects are accounted for, since some problems can’t be identified through testing by itself.
What is a competent person in health and safety?
A competent person is someone who has the skills, knowledge and experience to recognise hazards and ensure that you implement sensible measures to protect people from harm.
In certain low-risk environments, it might be sufficient for a staff member to undertake some inspections, but with electrical equipment you can never be too careful – and this is where a professional and qualified electrician really comes into their own.
At Landlec, we offer a wide range of different electrical solutions, including PAT testing, installation work, fault diagnosis, repairs, safety inspections and so on. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with the team today to see how we can help.