A Streamlined Approach for the Electrical Industry

gazza — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 23:00:00 +0000

gazza Mon, 09/09/2013

The electrical industry may be facing change on a more dramatic level in the near future if changes implied by government officials go ahead.
What are these changes?
For those who are not aware, a meeting was held last week in parliament to discuss the future of the electrical industry and how the public will be able to make a suitably informed choice when selecting an electrician to work in their home. It was the second follow up meeting into the enquiry. The first meeting was held in January 2013 and the government wanted to see how far the electrical industry has got in working together to form a single resource for the public to go to in order to select an electrician. The meeting was attended by representatives from the ECA, NAPIT, Certsure and the Electrical Safety Council.
What the government wants
The government wants to see a streamlined approach and the formation of a resource that the public can go to in order to find an electrician. They want to see scheme providers working together to gain customer confidence on one definitive resource.
Currently, the government feels that the public remain confused and that branding and marketing are playing a key part to assisting the public on finding an electrician rather than the public having the confidence of choosing a safe electrician from an over-arching brand.
What the scheme providers want
The scheme providers agree on the principles that are required by government, however they firmly believe that their own resources meet these principles.
The problem is what should go and what should stay, after all they all appear to meet the governmental standards:
Key values in relation to complaints
Fundamental campaigns to promote electrical safety in the home
Robust electrician assessments that are carried out often
Accredited and inspected by bodies such as UKAS, DCLG etc.
When Part P was set up, by it's very nature rightly or wrongly, this created competition amongst the various scheme providers. In the longer term, the ECA and the NICEIC along with the Electrical Safety Council have joined together to form Certsure. Together they can work towards a common goal which is to educate the public on electrical safety in their homes. The organisations combined hold 80% of registered electricians. They feel that this has reduced the competitive nature of Part P and enabled the schemes to focus on the needs of the public.
They all agree that a simplification of the system is required, but a key question remains – who stays, who goes......or maybe they'll all go.
What is happening currently
At the moment some industry scheme providers are in disagreement and these issues are widely debated throughout the industry. Electricians and scheme providers want to raise public awareness of the importance of home electrical safety. The issue of Part P and public safety when it comes to electricity is as much debated outside of the government offices as it is in them! Some Electricians feel that scheme providers are nothing more than money spinners with no ones interests at heart whilst the public is becoming increasingly confused by the meaning of all of it.
Scheme providers are being urged to work together to overcome these issues.
What Electricians want
Electricians also want to be recognised by an over-arching brand that will become a recognisable 'brand' to the public – similar to the Gas Safe scheme. The governmental meeting debated these exact issues and how the public will be able to confidently choose an electrician who is safe to carry out work in their homes.
Electricians clearly care greatly on public safety and feel as torn as the industry itself on these issues.
So what is likely to happen?
Well there is one certainty, and that is that things will be changing. One of the closing lines at the meeting was “There’s only one thing that you've agreed on this afternoon and that’s that you don't want a mandatory scheme”.... “however the threat of a mandatory scheme might be the only thing that brings you together”
Conclusion
So is a mandatory Part P scheme provider on it's way? It would seem that scheme providers must now find a way of coming together for the benefit of the public.
We will be following developments closely to bring you the latest on this topic.
You can watch the video recording of the meeting in the public domain here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=13738

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electricians news, part p scheme providers, electrical safety, Exclusive Industry News