Whether testing is compulsory is one question and it has its own answer elsewhere on this site. This page answers the other one: which documents apply, and what each of them says. There are four that matter, three statutory and one not, and none of them contains the words PAT or portable appliance testing as a required activity. Reading them in order is the quickest way to understand why two competent contractors can propose different amounts of work for the same building, and why an interval copied off a poster is not compliance.
There is no PAT test law, and the phrase PAT testing regs hides three documents
Nothing on the statute book creates a test called PAT, sets an interval for it or requires a certificate. What exists is a duty to maintain, a duty to inspect work equipment, and a duty to assess risk, each in a different instrument, and the testing regime is one accepted way of discharging all three at once. This matters practically rather than pedantically: a duty holder who understands that the obligation is maintenance can adjust what is done and how often as the register tells them something, whereas one who believes an annual test is the law has no way to justify doing more where it is needed or less where it is not.
PAT testing laws in the plural: the 1989 regulations, the work equipment regulations and the 1999 regulations
Regulation 4(2) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 requires electrical systems to be maintained, so far as is reasonably practicable, to prevent danger, and regulation 16 requires the person doing the work to have the knowledge or experience to avoid it. Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 requires work equipment to be maintained in efficient working order and in good repair, and where it matters, that a maintenance log is kept up to date. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks, which is where the interval comes from. Above all three sits section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and its general duty to employees.
PAT testing guidelines, which are not law but are what an inspector reads
The HSE's guidance for low risk environments sets out the three layers everybody in the trade works to: the user's own look before use, a formal visual inspection at intervals, and a combined inspection and test where the equipment or the environment justifies it. The industry code of practice published by the professional institution goes further and tabulates suggested starting intervals by equipment class and premises type. Neither is binding, and both are what a competent contractor is measured against, so departing from them is allowed and needs a reason that is written down rather than assumed.
What this means for the interval you choose
The interval is yours to set and yours to defend, from the assessment and then from the results. A class of equipment that keeps failing earns a shorter one. A class that has never failed in a dry office over several cycles earns a longer one, and the guidance says so in as many words. What cannot be defended is an interval that has never moved: it is evidence that nobody is reading the register, which is the document the whole regime exists to produce.
Questions people ask about pat testing regulations UK
Is PAT testing mandatory?
The testing is not; the maintenance is. An employer who never inspects portable equipment is in breach of regulation 4(2) and of PUWER regulation 5 whatever they call their process, and an employer who inspects sensibly and records it is compliant even if nothing is labelled. In practice most organisations arrive at something close to the published regime because it is the cheapest defensible way to show the duty is being met, and because insurers and clients ask for the register.
When is PAT testing required?
When the risk assessment says the equipment and its use call for it, which in practice means: before first use of anything second hand or repaired, after any event that could have damaged an item, at the intervals your own assessment sets for each class of equipment, and whenever the register shows a class failing more often than expected. New equipment from a manufacturer arrives certified and needs a look rather than a test, and a dry office lamp needs far less attention than a site tool.
Where does the phrase PAT test legal requirement come from?
From two real duties being compressed into one slogan by the people selling the service. There is a legal requirement to maintain electrical equipment so that it does not cause danger, and there is a separate legal requirement in the private rented sector for a fixed installation inspection at least every five years. Neither says annual, neither says test every appliance, and neither issues a certificate for appliances. The register and the assessment behind it are what evidence compliance.
Sources
- Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, regulation 4
- Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, regulation 16 (persons to be competent)
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 5 (maintenance)
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3 (risk assessment)
- HSE INDG236: maintaining portable electric equipment in low-risk environments
- HSE: portable appliance testing, frequently asked questions