What The Law says: The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 sets out that any electrical equipment with potential to cause injury must be maintained in a safe condition. Typical risks include electrocution, electric shock and thermal burns. Faulty equipment may also present an increased risk of fire. Some form of positive maintenance programme is required; it is not acceptable to say that “the electrical equipment is never moved and so we don’t need to do anything”.

Additionally, some insurers will impose a condition that electrical equipment is subject to a programme of inspection and testing to reduce the risk of injury or fire occurring. We recommend that you check your insurance policy now to see if this applies to you.

PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) testing provides evidence that electrical equipment is being maintained in a safe condition. It is not a legal requirement and you can make your own arrangements. However doing nothing is not an option.

B-Safe have our own professionally trained and qualified PAT testers who undertake a two part electrical safety inspection:

Part 1: A visual inspection of the item, its power cord and plug. Our inspector is looking for signs of damage, switch not working, exposed wires, incorrect or wrongly fitted fuse.

Part 2: An electrical safety test. We use a specialist PAT testing machine for this. Essentially, it checks the electrical safety of the item by means of a current passed through it.

Only when an item has passed both parts of the B-Safe inspection do we attach a label and record it as safe to use. We provide you with a written PAT Register so you can demonstrate compliance with the Regulations. So by engaging B-Safe to undertake your PAT testing you will automatically satisfy the requirements of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989.