Part P Concerns In Parliament
The amendment to Part P came into effect in April and saw changes in the form of a reduction in the amount of work deemed to be notifiable and a new allowance for the ability to use registered third parties to certify notifiable work instead of contacting a building control body.
These changes are now in effect and have been for the last month; however there have been a number of concerns over these changes, with ESC in particular quite strongly raising the issue of the government’s decision to implement these changes.
The Patron of the ESC, Baroness Jenny Tonge, brought a ‘Motion of Regret’ to the House of Lords on the subject of the changes to Part P and ESC’s concerns over these changes. It has been widely reported that ESC feel these changes are not the best for the safety and protection of householders having work undertaken and have been fighting to keep the regulations.
During the process of challenge, concerns were raised on the following:
- Criticism was made of the changes to Part P
- The consultation process was questioned
- The government’s results that 65% of consultation respondents agreed to the reduction in notifiable work was also questioned
- The possible financial saving from implementing this amendment was raised
- How these changes were monitored was questioned
- How the government are planning to measure the impact of these changes to Part P in 2015 was also raised
The response to the concerns raised by ESC was that Part P monitoring would be put in place to cover electric shocks and electrical fires along with the data for competent person schemes. There will also be an impact analysis of the sales of electrical test equipment and electrical qualifications.
The point was also raised that the government and CLG officials are working alongside ESC to promote the competent person schemes.
What’s your opinion of the changes to Part P and what ESC are doing about it?
Written by Sara Thomson
