The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 are the general electrical safety law for work activities in Great Britain. They are short, they are goal-setting, and they name no document. Everything the trade sells as a certificate exists because these regulations require systems to be maintained so as to prevent danger and leave the method to whoever holds the duty.
The duty in regulation 4
All systems must be constructed so as to prevent danger so far as is reasonably practicable, and as may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems must be maintained so as to prevent danger, so far as is reasonably practicable. Work activities on or near a system must be carried out so as not to give rise to danger, and protective equipment must be suitable, maintained and properly used.
Who they bind
Employers, the self-employed and employees, in respect of work activities. That covers a shop, an office, a factory, a building site and the common parts of a block managed as a business. A private home is outside them, which is why the duties on a residential landlord come from housing law instead.
Where the EICR comes in
Nowhere by name. Periodic inspection and test is the recognised way of showing a fixed installation is being maintained, and BS 7671 provides the model report, but the interval and the method come from risk. For a rented home in England the statutory five-yearly duty comes from the 2020 Regulations rather than from these.
Where PAT testing comes in, and how often PAT tests are due
Also nowhere by name. Regulation 4(2) is the duty that PAT testing evidences, and HSE guidance is explicit that the law does not state what needs to be done or how often. A regime built from user checks, formal visual inspection and combined inspection and test is what the guidance describes.
Scotland and Wales
The Electricity at Work Regulations apply across Great Britain. What differs by nation is the housing law layered on top: the 2020 Regulations cover England, the Renting Homes fitness regulations cover Wales, and in Scotland electrical safety sits inside the repairing standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.
Fixed electrical testing, and the words the regulations do not use
Fixed electrical testing, fixed wire testing and periodic inspection and test all describe the same exercise: examining and testing the installation that is wired into the building, as against the appliances plugged into it. None of those phrases appears in the Electricity at Work Regulations. What appears is regulation 4's duty to maintain systems so as to prevent danger, and testing is how a duty holder shows they have. Two consequences follow. There is no statutory interval outside rented housing, so the report's own recommended date and the risk are what set it. And a contractor who quotes fixed electrical testing without saying how many circuits and whether the report is included is quoting an unknown, because the circuits are the unit of work.
What does an electrical safety check involve uk wide, and what the phrase covers
Three different things get called an electrical safety check, and the first question is which one is being bought. A visual inspection with no instruments, which finds damage and obvious faults and proves nothing about earthing or insulation. A periodic inspection and test of the fixed installation, which produces a condition report with a schedule of circuits, measured results and classification codes. And portable appliance testing of the equipment plugged in, which is a separate exercise on a separate schedule. Only the second answers the maintenance duty for the installation, and only it produces the document a council, a lender or an insurer asks to see.
Fixed wire testing regulations UK duty holders actually sit under
There is no regulation with that name, which is why the phrase leads nowhere in the statute book. The duty is regulation 4(2) of these regulations: electrical systems maintained, so far as is reasonably practicable, to prevent danger. Fixed wire testing is the industry's name for the periodic inspection and test that discharges it, the technical standard it is carried out to is the national wiring standard, and the interval comes from the risk and the previous report rather than from any instrument. For a rented home in England a separate set of regulations adds a five year maximum, which is the only place a fixed interval is actually written down.
A BS7671 certificate, and why the standard is not the law
The wiring standard is not statutory. It is the recognised way of achieving the statutory duty, which is why an installation certificate or a condition report issued to it is the evidence everybody asks for, and why departing from it obliges the designer to record the departure and justify it as equally safe. Two practical consequences. A certificate citing an older edition is not invalid, because it certifies work against the standard in force when the work was done. And nobody can be prosecuted for breaching the standard itself: the charge, where there is one, is failing to maintain the system so as to prevent danger.
Questions people ask about electricity at work regulations
Do the Electricity at Work Regulations require an EICR?
Not by name. They require systems to be maintained so as to prevent danger, and periodic inspection and test is the recognised way of demonstrating it for a fixed installation.
Is an EICR a legal requirement for commercial property?
There is no fixed statutory interval for commercial premises. The duty to maintain applies, and the interval is set from risk and from the previous report.
Do they apply to a private home?
They apply to work activities. A landlord's duty over a rented home comes from housing law, which is where the five-yearly inspection in England comes from.
Is the position different in Scotland?
The regulations themselves apply across Great Britain. Scotland's landlord duty sits inside the repairing standard rather than in the England regulations.
What does an EICR certificate commercial property owners hold have to show?
The installation inspected, the circuits tested, the observations coded by severity, and the inspector's recommendation for the next inspection date. A report with no codes against its observations cannot be acted on and cannot be handed to an insurer.
What do the PAT testing regulations say?
There are none by that name. The duty is in the Electricity at Work Regulations, which require the system to be maintained so as to prevent danger, and inspection and testing is the usual way of showing it was.