Morning All. Thanks for the comments. The thread was set upto answer questions specifically about the new Joint Venture. While i think we havestrayed off from that topic slightly I will try and answer some of the pointsraised.
If anyone has any further questions about the merger betweenthe ECA and ESC then please do post them up today and we will try to get themanswered.
Promotion
The Electrical Safety Register will be promoted extensivelyto consumers and specifiers of electrical work. We commit to spend a proportionof all fees on marketing the register so that it becomes the number onesearchable database for registered electricians. We have already sent out morethan 20 000 letters to MPs, local authorities, housing associations and othersuch leading organisations informing them about the move.
Public relations and marketing plans are already in placeand we’re confident the Electrical Safety Register will benefit NICEIC andELECSA registrants.
As a separate point, the Electrical Safety Register isn’tjust aimed at householders, NICEIC Approved Contractors and ECA registeredmembers are on there too. The electrical contracting industry is broad and the register isn’t just focussed on Domestic Installers.
Part P
NICEIC, partnering with the ECA and ELECSA has expressed itsviews on the future of Part P to the DCLG during its recent consultation and weawait to see government’s decision on the proposal. A large part of oursubmission was that more needed to be done to promote Part P to consumers andas a scheme operator we have a responsibility to do this in conjunction withgovernment.
In terms of policing, we are accredited by the UnitedKingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) which audits us annually, and the recentSelect Committee, where NICEIC stood alongside ECA and the ESC, we welcomedmore scrutiny over Scheme Operators. We welcome this and the added transparencythis will bring.
Competent Persons /Standards
NICEIC Engineers carry out visits to our 26,000 registeredcontractors each year and inspect around 300 000 jobs and reports back are thatstandards are on the increase.
NICEIC operates a robust and rigorous qualification forregistration, accredited by UKAS. This includes, an inspection of arepresentative sample of the companies work, assessment at their premises to ensure they have documentation andrecords, employs only competent persons to carry out electrical work, hasevidence of required insurances and an, inspection of their equipment andpremises. Most importantly, it includes a requirement for regular periodicinspections and assessments of organisations and principle named individuals toensure standards are continually met.
However, in the same way that the British MedicalAssociation cannot oversee every operation performed by a surgeon, the NICEICis not in a position to test every electrical installation itself. The fact that a contractor has properly beenapproved to work to best industry standards on assessment cannot, regrettably,rule out the possibility that acontractor, or someone working for them, may be negligent in relation to aspecific electrical installation in the future.
Much like when you pass a driving test that person has aduty of care to act safely and responsible. Our annual assessments ensurestandards are maintained and that training is up to date whilst also providingthe company the opportunity to ask our skilled engineers any questions orqueries they might have.
There are several factors as to why it isn’t possible tomake registration on a Register mandatory or indeed register the individualinstead of a company. Firstly you just have to listen to our customers – or anyelectrician -to realise how tough the economic climate is. Anything thatincreases costs for contractors wouldn’t be right or ethical at this time. Secondly,there is no appetite at government level to do this and this was clear at therecent Select Committee on Part P.
I hope this helps answer some questions and if there are any more specifically relating to the new joint venture then i am happy to respond. Thanks for your time.
