What is Part P?
We often get questions about the mysterious ‘Part P’ in relation to electrical work around the home. The rules around domestic electrical installations are set the Building Regulations for England and Wales. These regulations include a section called Part P. When completing electrical installations, the installer must comply with all of the relevant regulations, Part P just covers some of those regulations.
What does Part P electrical cover?
Simply put, Part P says that anyone carrying out electrical installation work in a home must make sure that the work is designed and installed to protect people from fire and electric shocks. Part P includes the rules around what is notifiable, and what is non-notifiable work. See our blog post here on what the difference is.
These rules only cover England and Wales, and are a little bit different in each nation. Scotland’s rules are set by the Buildings Standards, whereas Northern Ireland does not have a comparative regime.
Notifiable work under Part P
If you are carrying out notifiable work, then Part P requires the work is signed off by a ‘competent person’. That means you need to have the work inspected by either:
- An electrician who is registered with an approved national scheme
- Your local authority’s building control department
Is EICR the same as Part P?
This is a common confusion that we see. Notifiable work has to be signed off under Part P, unlike non-notifiable work which does not need to be signed off. Though you should still get a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MEIWC) for such work, see our post here for more information.
An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is carried out by a competent person and tells you about the state of the electrical system in your home. Landlords require an up-to-date EICR before renting out a property to a new tenant. If you are selling your home, the buyer may ask for an EICR to evidence that the electrical system in the property is safe. If an EICR inspection deems each part of your system to be safe, then this will be sufficient to meet your requirements under Part P.
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