Rules & Regulations

Electrical Safety

Electrical safety applies to your business

Each year about 30 people die from electricity at work. The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 give you a duty of care to ensure that the electrical equipment and installations that your staff or customers use are safe.

What is safe?

Safe means with no, or very minimal risk, of death or injury from using electrical equipment.

Your obligations as a business

Under the regulations, and also under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, you are obliged to ensure that your electrical equipment is safe for staff and customers (particularly relevant for accommodation providers of all types, especially self catering providers). Unlike for gas appliances, the law does not require you to regularly test and inspect electrical equipment, either yourself or by a qualified engineer (electrician). But it does require you to ensure that equipment is safe. So how is this to be achieved?

What you should do

The HSE advise the following:

• Regularly examine electrical equipment and look for obvious faults - frayed wiring, exposed wires badly fitted plugs, damaged equipment etc. This can be done by yourself or your staff.
• Regularly have equipment tested by a competent electrician - this is not a legal requirement but helps to ensure that you are keeping products safe for your staff and customers.
• Ensure electrical products are CE marked (showing their conformation to electrical standards of safety) or, if second-hand are otherwise 'passed' as safe by a competent electrician.
• Provide customers with information - manuals, instructions and warnings as appropriate.
• Keep a record of checks - so you can prove you are being diligent.

Letting/managing agents and business premises landlords

As with gas safety, you need to clarify who is responsible for electrical safety, you, your agent or your landlord (as appropriate).

Further guidance

The HSE produce a leaflet: Electrical safety and you, which advises on how to do checks yourself (or how to train your staff) as well as how often to check appliances, and general good practice.

They also have a frequently asked questions page for electrical safety.