This is a popular question that I’m asked quite often.
Homeowners sometimes wish to carry out their own electrical work and often ask ‘who can carry out electrical work in the UK’ or ‘can I do electrical work without being qualified?’.
These are great questions, so I’m please to be able to provide a clear answer to this important matter.
There are two definitions that help answer this:
1. In the UK electrical regulations (BS7671) there’s the definition of a ‘Skilled Person’ (refering to a non-qualified person) who is familiar with safe isolation of a circuit and can competently and safely change a socket or light fitting, or change a faulty smoke detector or extractor fan and other ‘end points’ that don’t involve changes to the circuit. A skilled person could be a homeowner, a handyman or other tradesperson.
If this is you, then you can legally carry out these electrical tasks.
However, unlike the US and Australia, there’s no ‘law’ that stops anyone from performing these activities, but persons with less (or no) experience are at more at a risk to themselves and others if they’re unfamiliar with the risks of working on electrical circuits, and more at risk of prosecution if someone gets electrically injured as a result of their work.
2. A Qualified Electrician is a person who can undertake all types of electrical work including modifications to circuits, or the adding of new circuits and changing consumer units/ fuse boxes and who are able to ‘sign off’ their work. This would typically involve producing evidence that their work is safe for use (via formal test procedures), and is able to notify their electrical body (such as NICEIC, NAPIT and others) and Building Control (for Part P notifications) where relevant via formal processes.
Hope this helps?