Rogue Electricians

Nobody can ever say they are the perfect electrician - not me, not any member of my electrical team and not any other qualified electrician with up to date training - we all recognise that fact but we continue to work hard and spend money on training, learning and studying our craft and applying to the best of our ability our knowledge in interpreting BS7671 electrical and other relevant regulations into our everyday jobs.

Unfortunately as it currently stands anyone can call themselves an electrician and carry out electrical work in homes and businesses and the situation is of such concern that Scotland's trade association SELECT are now in discussion with the Scottish Government about regulating the electrical industry in law and making the term Electrician a profession (similar to Gas) which in turn would make it illegal for anyone to carry out electrical work if they are not registered, have no qualifications or have no up to date training.

To give context to the above movement I myself have been on the receiving end lately of being involved with people who carry out electrical work who have not been trained in recent years to the current regulations.

A number of weeks ago I was a approached by someone in my area who argued with me that they were correct in proposing to install battery powered smoke detectors in a private rented property, after I on the the spot showed them the regulations on my phone they still were not convinced "as that was not the rules 15 years ago and it was fine then" but I eventually found out they had listened to me and correctly installed mains powered interlinked smoke detectors. 

Unfortunately that was not the end of my encounter and a few weeks later after my company carried out an Electrical Installation Condition Report at a private rented property I was publicly accused by this same person who has admitted having no up to date electrical training, of failing the electrical report for no other reason than failing the report to money grab the remedial work cost. The electrical installation failed on items such as but not limited to - exposed open live electrical connections, a number of circuits/cables protected by oversized circuit breakers, wrong polarity at switch, cables touching sharp metal edges with no grommet(rubber) protection - the accuser incidentally admitted carrying out some of the work we had failed and thought the above 'Danger Present' and 'Potentially Dangerous' items should not have been listed.

As you can probably gather I am rather annoyed at my own and my company's integrity being publicly questioned by someone who really should know better but for what ever reason will not update their qualifications or training to todays regulations.

I am proud of my own and my companies professional attitude, safety and integrity and these recent personal incidents have made me even more determined to join the fight and campaign to regulate the electrical industry - and why? it's simple - people's property and more importantly peoples lives are at risk with electrical work and homeowners and business owners should be protected and be safe in the knowledge that the electrical work they request to be carried out is undertaken correctly, safely and to today's regulations and by qualified professionals who they can trust their property and lives with.

And if property owners wish to still allow these other type of people to carry out electrical work in their property if the industry is regulated then there must be a system in place for the law abiding electricians to report the non-registered and unqualified 'electricians'.