A quote for this work is built from four things and only one of them is the testing: how many items are at one address, how far the engineer travels to reach them, what the smallest job the contractor will accept is worth, and what happens to an item that fails. Ask about those four and two quotes become comparable. Ask for a single figure and you get somebody else's job priced for yours, which is why the same building can be quoted twice at very different totals by two firms both doing the work properly. This page sets out the structure rather than a number, because the number depends on the four answers and any figure published without them is a guess dressed as a price.
Per item or per visit: how much is PAT testing per item, and what a PAT testing price list leaves out
Most quotes are a minimum charge with a per item rate above it, and the rate steps down as the count rises, because the setting up, the travel and the paperwork are the same whether there are ten items or two hundred. A published rate card therefore describes the middle of somebody's book and not your job: it tends to assume one site, mains powered plug-in equipment, nothing in a plant room, and somebody on site to unplug things. The two questions that make a rate card mean something are where the steps are, and what counts as one item, because a computer with a monitor, a kettle lead and a four gang extension can be counted as one item or four by two firms quoting the same room.
PAT testing charges that appear after the quote
Four recur. Retesting an item after a repair, which is often charged as a second visit if the engineer has left. Minor repairs such as a plug top, a fuse of the wrong rating or a cable gland, which some contractors include as part of the inspection and others price each. Labelling and the register itself, occasionally quoted as an extra where the base price covers only the test. And out of hours work, which is the one worth raising first, because testing means unplugging equipment and a busy office or a working kitchen often cannot be tested during the day at all.
PAT testing cost UK wide, and why one number cannot exist
Nothing in law sets a price, an interval or a scope, so there is no standard job to have a standard price. The duty in regulation 4(2) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 is to maintain electrical systems so far as is reasonably practicable to prevent danger, and the guidance turns that into a judgement about the equipment and its environment. A construction site with hand tools, a hire fleet and a kitchen with wet hands on metal bodies sit at one end; a dry office of desk lamps and laptop chargers sits at the other. Two buildings with the same item count can honestly attract quite different amounts of work, which is what a national average conceals rather than reveals.
What a fair quote looks like on paper
It names the site or sites, the item count it assumes and what happens if the count is wrong on the day. It says who is doing the work and what they hold, because regulation 16 of the same regulations requires a person doing work on an electrical system to have the technical knowledge or experience to prevent danger. It states what is included when something fails. And it promises a register listing every item with its result and its next inspection date, which is the document an inspector asks for. A cheaper quote that ends in a certificate saying the premises passed has saved money on the only part anybody will ever ask to see.
Other questions people ask
How much for PAT testing if there are only a handful of items?
On a very small job the minimum charge is the price, and the per item rate is close to irrelevant. That is not a contractor being difficult: a visit costs a slot in the day whether it takes twenty minutes or two hours. Two ways round it are worth asking about. Combining the visit with something else the same firm does, such as an installation inspection or an emergency lighting test. Or joining a neighbour's booking, which works better than people expect in a shared building, because the travel is then paid once.
What should a PAT testing price per item cover?
The user level checks, the formal visual inspection and, where the item and its use call for it, the combined inspection and test, plus the entry on the register and the label on the item. What it often does not cover is anything found: a failed item may be quarantined at no cost, repaired for a fee, or simply reported. Ask which, because a quote that includes repairs and one that does not are not the same product, and the second becomes the first the moment an old extension lead fails.
Does the PAT testing cost per item fall with volume?
Yes, and it is the main lever you hold. The fixed part of the visit is spread over the count, so consolidating sites into one booking, having somebody available to unplug equipment, and making sure the items are accessible rather than behind furniture all move the total more than negotiating the rate does. The other lever is the register: once a good one exists, later visits are shorter because the engineer is checking against a list rather than discovering the building.