Legal Requirements
The legal requirement for maintenance is designed to ensure that equipment remains safe and is given in various pieces of legislation, the three most important of which are detailed below:-
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (sections 2,3 and 4) places a duty of care upon the employer to ensure the safety of employees and other persons using the workplace.
The Act also places a duty on the employer to ensure the safety of those who are not employed, but are ‘affected by the work activity.’ This might include:-
- Customers in a shop
- Pupils and students in a school or college
- Audience at a concert
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 state:
- ‘Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is so constructed or adapted as to be suitable for the purpose for which it is used or provided’. (Regulation 4(1))
- ‘Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair’. (Regulation 5(1))
Note that the guidance document reports that ‘efficient’ as used in the above regulation relates to safety, not productivity.
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 state:-
- ‘As may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger.’ (Regulation 4 (2))
Note that there is no specific legislative requirement to carry out inspection and testing, and especially no reference to any prescribed frequency or test methods. Nor does the legislation specify the qualifications needed by anybody carrying out the maintenance work but it does insist that they are competent.
However, there is clearly a legal requirement to ensure that all electrical systems (including portable appliances) remain in a safe condition, and failure to do so would be a criminal offence. This means that if you have a faulty piece of equipment, and you ignore it, and then somebody were to be injured, the employer (the owner of the equipment) would have committed an offence under the Electricity at Work Regulations, and would be liable to prosecution
Note that the Electricity at Work Regulations apply to all electrical systems, regardless of voltage, but the memorandum of guidance states that the maintenance obligation only arises where danger would otherwise result. Therefore, there is usually no need to inspect and test low voltage equipment such as calculators or telephones.
You should note that, whilst it is clear that there is no legal requirement to carry out PAT Testing, there is a duty to make sure that your electrical equipment (or your employer's equipment) is safe when it is being used. Most insurance companies are now saying that it would be a requirement of your policy to have your equipment tested regularly, and you will be required to produce a PAT Test certificate if you want to use your electrical equipment at another premises (for example a DJ or a tradesman.)