A simple guide to health and safety regulation which applies to portable electrical equipment in the workplace and your responsibilities for checking, maintaining and testing such equipment.
Ensuring the safety of electrical equipment used in your business by yourself or your staff is important for many obvious reasons. There are, however, a few misunderstandings when it comes to electrical safety and there are all too many unscrupulous operators who use this as an opportunity to sell services which are not entirely necessary.
In July 2007 the Health & Safety Executive featured this topic in their popular Myth of the Month feature : Myth: All office equipment must be tested by a qualified electrician every year
PAT Testing – Electrical Safety
Ensuring the safety electrical equipment used in your business by yourself or your staff is important for many obvious reasons. There are, however, a few misunderstandings when it comes to electrical safety and there are all too many unscrupulous operators who use this as an opportunity to sell services which are not entirely necessary.
In July 2007 the Health & Safety Executive featured this topic in their popular Myth of the Month feature.
Myth: All office equipment must be tested by a qualified electrician every year
Electrical equipment, or Portable Appliances, within an office environment are considered to be within a low-risk environment and do not pose a major danger.
The advice from HSE is that electrical equipment should be visually checked by a competent member of staff at regular intervals. Obvious signs of a potential hazard will include loose or fraying cables, intermittent reliability and any damage to the outer casing or insulation materials. You can, of course, opt to have equipment checked each year by a qualified electrician but this is certainly not a legal requirement and only really advisable where members of the public may come into contact with such apparatus.
Work in Hazardous Environments
Where work involving electrical equipment takes place out doors or in another hazardous environment then special care needs to be taken. Typical instances will be where work takes place on construction sites, near to flammable or explosive materials or where there is a danger to the public.
Portable Power Tools
Tools which require flexible power cables present a special hazard due to the constant wear and tear they are subjected to which can result in damaged insulation and exposed conductors. Tools which are used on-site or away from the main working area need to be inspected and maintained on a regular basis.
Electrical Safety Legislation
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – The Health and Safety at Work Act does not make specific reference to electrical safety although it does require a provision of a safe working environment and systems of which, obviously, electrical safety is a major part.
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 – apply wherever the Health and Safety at Work is applicable, which is most working environments. The regulations relate to work activity and are far reaching; specifically – Regulation 4(2) ‘As may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems shall be maintained as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practical, such danger’.
