Part P? Question.

[uselessFCUK]

If it has now become illegal to do DIY electrical work in residential dwellings, so why are B&Q, Homebase, etc... still selling electrical components?

Why doesn't the Government make BS7671 law?

I am a qualified Maintenance electrician and carry out "foreigners" quite regularly. I am thorough in my work and inexpensive to use. Unless I declare my work Part P will be bypassed. What stops the Cowboys taking this route?

Can anybody shine some light for me, please?

 

[spence_spark]

part " P " is led by a government initiative
please do not try and make sense of it!
there is no correallation between common sense and reason in this instance
i'm sorry i cant make any clear path of reasoning in this particular muddy scenario


spence

 

[Damocles]

It is no more illegal to do electrics in your house-or anyone elses- than it is to do bricklaying, building foundations, installing insulation, windows, roofs,floors, plumbing, ceilings, you name it. Even painting in some circumstances. All these things come under some regulation or other, mostly building regs, exactly the same as electrics. If B&Q stopped selling everything which might be affected by building regs then they would be out of business.

 

[uselessFCUK]

damocles; what exactly is the purpose of Part P then?

How does it stop "Cowboys"?

Why can't a qualified spark pass his own work now? (Unless Gov'm't approved)

 

[andy]

damocles; what exactly is the purpose of Part P then?

How does it stop "Cowboys"?

Why can't a qualified spark pass his own work now? (Unless Gov'm't approved)

try reading up on it. there are more than enough threads on here about it.

 

[uselessFCUK]

Hmmm, no time for sifting...

 

[Damocles]

A lot of building work is covered by existing building regulations. More gets covered every year. The rules mean that any work covered must be inspected either by building control or another approved body to confirm that it meets the standard set in building regs.

Many people totally ignore these rules. Generally, the bigger a job, the more likely it will get inspected. Some people are interested in getting their paperwork all correct. Others do not care. Others yet absolutely want nothing whatsoever to do with the council because they know damn well they would not be allowed to do what they want. Or because doing it by the book will cost them twice as much.

In general building regs impose a minimum standard on major building works. I mean a minimum standard, too. They also tend to stifle innovation or improvements which are unconventional.

With electrics, the idea is to make it more difficult for incompetent electricians to advertise and obtain work. In practice, I suspect the number of incompetents driven out of the business will be more than offset by the number of repairs which are put off by the added complication, difficulty and expense.

The actual savings in life and damage hoped for from the regulations are no bigger than the actual added expense of the scheme, may in fact prove to be much less than the costs, and in any event are still a pretty small return for the money. Better to spend it improving the NHS, or reducing world poverty. If you want to save lives, probably better to spend it on road safety awareness. Maybe you would even save more lives spending it employing more dentist. Surprising how many people die during tooth extraction.

Electrics in this country are very safe. The existing regulations have made them this way. The best way to improve safety would be an education campaign so that people were capable of realising when their own electrics needed repair.

 

[uselessFCUK]

So why not make BS7671 mandatory?

 

[Damocles]

Because building regulations do not work like that. They are MINIMUM standards and do not make any one way of doing things mandatory.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

There's not much point you coming here firing off questions relating to Part P of the Building Regulations if you have failed to grasp some of the fundamental facts:

If it has now become illegal to do DIY electrical work in residential dwellings, so why are B&Q, Homebase, etc... still selling electrical components?

DIY electrical work has not become illegal.

Why doesn't the Government make BS7671 law?

What difference would that make? Part P of the Building Regulations, whilst not mandating BS7671, does require design, installation and testing standards which equate to that, so how would mandating BS7671 make any difference?

I am a qualified Maintenance electrician and carry out "foreigners" quite regularly. I am thorough in my work and inexpensive to use. Unless I declare my work Part P will be bypassed. What stops the Cowboys taking this route?

Not a lot at the moment, although this might change over time. The dilemma for you, of course, is that although you are not a cowboy, if you don't notify then you are breaking the law.

damocles; what exactly is the purpose of Part P then?

To give large electrical contracting firms control of the market and to kill off small and OMB businesses.

How does it stop "Cowboys"?

See answer above.

Why can't a qualified spark pass his own work now? (Unless Gov'm't approved)

See answer above re purpose of Part P.

Hmmm, no time for sifting...

The search here doesn't work - one of the few things better about Screwfix is that theirs does, so try this:

http://www.screwfix.com/talk/search...userID=&numResults=30&submit.x=23&submit.y=10

So why not make BS7671 mandatory?

Again - please tell us why you think that would make any difference?

 

[shaggy]

b-a-s:

The search here doesn't work

If you search partp without the space you get some results. Don't ask me why.

 

[Big_Spark]

BS7671 is technically law.

It states is several pieces of legislation that all electrical works must comply to BS7671, therefore if you fail to comply, you may have broken one piece of legislation or another.

As a maintenance spark you should be aware of this as much of what you do will be covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Act, The Electrical Supply Regulations Act, The Electricity at Work Act and several other pieces of legislation that deal with the use of electrical equipement in the work place.

 

[Damocles]

This is becoming pantomime.

OH NO IT's NOT!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

b-a-s:

The search here doesn't work

If you search partp without the space you get some results. Don't ask me why.

I don't need to ask you why. It's because the search finds instances where people have written it without the space....

 

[Damocles]

Hope this is not an example of censorship.

have you noticed that if you search on naughty words which would be censored, then you get back posts with asterisks in? Does this mean the original uncensored posts still exist intact?