RE: Re: New Regs to kill DIY HA?

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A thought has just occurred to me based on things said earlier in the
discussions about Part P (not neccessarily in this thread)

Mention was made that the DIY sheds would be selling cable in the new
colours. Presumably they will also continue to sell Cooker Switches and 45A
DP Pull switches for which the only logical place of deployment will be the
areas of the home that they are not allowed to perform electrical work that
isnt then inspected by a suitable qualified person.

Isnt this going to encourage Joe Public to break the new rules ?

As has also been stated, most people are totally oblivious to the changes
about to be thrust upon us and I suspect there will still be many cases
where a "bloke down the pub" will be doing dodgy wiring for a few
beer
tokens.


I had a good look round the Part P section of the NICEIC and am starting to
get worried. I am by no means trivialising the seriousness of electrical
safety but they seem to be making the figures up as they go along...

http://www.niceic.org.uk/partp/partphouse.html
"In fact according to Government statistics, every year 5 deaths and
over
500 injuries are caused by faulty electrical installations in the
home"

http://www.niceic.org.uk/partp/newsitem_sept0704.htm
Despite the fact that faulty electrics result in 19 deaths and over 2,000
non-fatal electric shock accidents each year

http://www.niceic.org.uk/common/DIS.html
"According to Government reports, defective fixed electrical
installations
in UK households cause around 30 deaths and over 1,150 serious injuries
every year"

... I darent read any more in case I find the page that tells me most of
the
UK population have been electrocuted!!!!

All in all, the whole population is going to have loads more money extorted
from them because of a few cowboys and idiots and the increased costs will
probably cause many more people to resort to using such people.

When my sister moved into her house a few years ago I fitted several
sockets
as I consider that I am more than competent to do so (but just dont have
the
paperwork to prove it), rather than let her husband do it. Likewise I
fitted
some sockets for my mum when she bought a bungalow but there is no way that
I could do it now even if I wanted to.

When people need small jobs done they will just look in the local "ad
mag"
and find someone advertising in there who will almost certainly only have a
mobile number, get them round to do the job and a few weeks later there
will
be a similar but "different" advert in the paper. Different name,
different
number, same bloke, same (possibly low) standard of work, but still fairly
anonymous.

I wonder if "Trading Standards" will monitor the small ads and
newsagents
windows checking that people offering to undertake electrical work are
suitable qualified. I doubt it somehow.

Keith