Yes seems silly but a skilled person is "A person with technical knowledge or sufficient experience to enable him/her to avoid dangers which electricity may create." if the work requires notifying then they have two routes, either become a scheme member, or use the LABC and pay their fees.
The idea of the scheme's was to ensure members had the skill, and with a sole trader to an extent that is true, but firms are registered not all the workers in the firms, so you can still get some one who has not got the qualification required.
I used the LABC for one job, and on completing I submitted the installation certificate and the completion certificate arrived in the post without the inspector paying a visit once complete.
In Wales there is a list of jobs one can do without notifying them, in England the reverse, there is a list of jobs you can't do, wording of the law is not very good, I wonder if that is intentionally.
What seems crazy is there is no restriction on who can do an electrical installation condition report, (EICR) can you imagine it if anyone could do an MOT? It does say
The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 said:
“qualified person” means a person competent to undertake the inspection and testing required under regulation 3(1) and any further investigative or remedial work in accordance with the electrical safety standards;
Which is rather open. I would assume it is a legacy from when we were in the common market, where we had to allow tradesmen from member states to work here, so City & Guilds is British so could not ask for that.
An electrician should always provide some paperwork, well likely that is true of all trades, anything connected with health and safety must be in writing, could be a text message or an email, but written no voice. Even on the back of a fag packet, so if I see an oil spillage and tell my foreman verbally and don't write it down, and the HSE gets me to admit I knew about the spillage but did not write it down, I can end up in court. But even writing the location on a fag packet, and passing to foreman, and I am now clear, assuming it was not I who spilt the oil.
So the electrician has to complete a minor works or installation certificate for all work, he could maybe get away writing it down in a day book, but needs a written record of what he has done. The invoice may cover him, as long as it say what he has done. I got into trouble a few times over poor records. If one is run off ones feet, easy not to write some thing down.
Of course the same goes with instructions from landlord, needs to be in writing, maybe only broad outline, but you need to show you asked some one to do the work.
However back in the real world, my mothers door bell was battery powered, and social services said they would fund the work to make it mains powered, so an electrician sent who fitted a transformer, AC output, but door entry system was DC so did not work, he returned and could not find a hard wired DC power supply, so fitted a socket and a walmart plug in DC power supply, seeing what he had done, I thought Oh good I can fit a double adaptor and charge mothers mobility scooter from same socket. But just in case, plugged in the RCD tester and found nothing tripped, so clearly fitted wrong side of consumer unit. So asked for the paperwork, social services did not have it, I pestered for a month, then gave up. But if the county council can't follow the rules, what do you think are the chances they will take some one else to task for not following the rules, being in Wales should have had a compliance certificate as well, so if the county council don't bother, can't really expect others to.
Personally I would issue a minor works as if some thing goes wrong I can show the paperwork and claim it was OK when I left (even if not true).
