It's been 5 years now!

On December 31st 2009, it will be five years since Part P of the Building Regulations was introduced.

Early in 2005, I wrote an article explaining what it means to residents and as it's now been in operation for 5 years, perhaps now is a good time to see if it achieved the desired result. It was brought in as the government was convinced it would save 8 additional deaths caused by all electrical causes in the home over a 10 year period at the extra cost of only £350,000,000+. Now at the halfway stage, we have no data on how much it cost to introduce (not forgetting the on-going costs to the construction industry) and as the number of deaths directly attributable to domestic electrical installations rose in the first two years, the figures suddenly became unavailable, for some reason.

The strange thing is that everyone seems to have ignored the fact that carrying out electrical work safely has been a requirement of the building regulations ever since they were thought of. No different from erecting a building that is correctly built or fitting a roof that doesn't let in water. It's just that common sense has to be measured and inspected in this age of not trusting anyone to do anything right and mistakes cannot be allowed to happen. What a pity it usually involves a human beings, who really shouldn't be allowed out on their own.

I suppose we should answer the question of whether it has achieved the desired result. Well, as the figures on deaths have stopped being counted, who knows? The millions of pounds it may have cost to implement had to be recovered by local authority building control departments, legal entities spending money on registering and being inspected and all the training courses suddenly introduced to allow registration. All nice and cosy, it seems. I had to spend five years doing work experience and training for not a lot of wages (called an apprenticeship), then a few years honing my 'skills', before actually deciding to start out on my own. In those days, there were just two 'independent' trade associations. One was for employers who had a turnover of at least £30,000 (I told you it was a long while ago!) and another who approved contracting firms to go on their 'roll' , but you needed to have been trading for at least a year and the idea was that the inspector would look at a representative sample of your work every year. In those days (oh, it was the latter I was enrolled with) we were expected to do everything from domestic, to industrial including hazardous installation and commercial.

How does this compare with today? There are now a number of assorted 'registration bodies' to encourage competition, however, as with all these wonder ideas, amalgamations are already starting to take place. To get registered, you do have to be a legal entity (not even breathing is required), you need a bit of paper to say you can pass an exam and you need to show at least a couple of installations to be inspected. Naturally, these can be something like adding a light to your Aunties bedroom and installing a socket in Uncles shed. The other very important requirement is the ability to pay the registration fee (very important, this bit). You too could be a registered 'electrician' with a logo on your invoice with the abilities of your average DIY person.

Out in the real world, this maybe why recorded deaths caused by faulty electrical installations in the home were on the rise, although not as high as from other causes such as falling from steps or ladders. The real problem is that just being 'registered' is still not a guarantee that the person(s) carrying out electrical work in the home are competent, which it would be reasonable to assume was the basic reason for adding specific domestic electrical works to the building regulations. Like I say, legal entity could have just one qualifying person/supervisor who then lets his mates best friend loose on the unsuspecting public. No, you are right, it couldn't happen – could it?

For your Christmas entertainment.........

Hi, my name is Norman Cutting, and this is my story on if you believe enough, it must be true.
At school I enjoyed a good debate, but never seemed to win the argument. I was sent on a course to improve matters and to test it out, I thought I would believe that little Smithers minor would break his arm. I watched him carefully and one day he fell over, but only sprained his wrist. Drat, I thought, not anything like a break. At the first opportunity, I tripped him up and he broke his arm. That's better, I said to myself, it's true that if I believe enough, then it must be true.
Naturally, I progressed to university and fine-tuned my abilities. I felt I should be able to create a more equal society that already existed with myself naturally more equal that others, as it would be me who could bring this change about. I got to know like minded groups such as trade union officials and used those connections to gravitate towards sources of funding to bring this utopia to fruition.

Soon I was ready for the big wide world and with my honours degree in painting and decorating entered the legal profession, after all, with just 12 to convince in a court, I could change the world easily. Sadly, my powers did not have the desired result so I need something more subtle. Politics must be the way forward and after looking at the various options, it was apparent that the pregnant party was the most malleable. It didn't take long to persuade the party to elect me as leader. All I needed now was to change the public's perception of pregnancy.
In a flash, it came to me. The Pregnant Party needed to to be New Pregnant to separate it from the old guard. With my powers, I could convince the general public that we were different. I could convince the old guard that the fundamental policies were the same, just the methodology was different. This would get us into power by public acclaim and with my belief that I was right in all things, how could we fail?

We had a stroke of luck the way things turned out. The Traditionalists had been in power a very long time, the leadership was failing, but the economy was just turning, so with luck, we could take the credit and might get away with winning a couple of elections. My deputy needs to appeal to the old school and to reinforce the position, I could create an office for the Deputy Prime Minister so with my boyish good looks and honesty, how could we not win?
And it came to pass that I swept away all the experienced politicians and my belief came into it's own. I could make things happen. I could be rich. I could make anyone believe anything. I surrounded myself with advisers who would tell me what I wanted to hear – or they would be out on their ear – and building on the strengthening economy I could walk on water. I could spend on public services, I could appoint all my mates into positions where my ideas could flourish – for at least four years.

Over this period, I had my little setbacks, but no matter, there was always someone I could promote to the other place (or even the other gravy train!) in return for taking the blame as 'Teflon Norman' could do no wrong and my work was not finished. My biggest challenge was a small altercation in the middle east where it seemed that after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, the leadership hadn't learnt their lesson, so I decided, with my mate the President, that he ought be taken down a peg or three. Naturally, we managed to find a good reason (with a fall back position or two) to do just that. You can't just decide to do these things on a whim, it needed preparation without anyone knowing (I told you I could do anything!). Fortunately, I still believed that I could do no wrong, so convinced those who mattered that I was right.
It suddenly occurred to me that I needed a far wider portfolio than just the UK, if I was to achieve the greatness I deserved. I was reminded (constantly) by my friends that the original plan was that I would stand down after a suitable interval and allow someone else  to take over the running of this small island. The fly in the ointment was another election was coming rapidly into view. I was persuaded to use my powers of belief to win this election and delay my appearance on the world stage. As luck would have it, the public believed everything I promised and the Pregnant Party (sorry, New Pregnant Party) were duly elected. The two main opposition parties couldn't believe it and decided to re-invent themselves – it worked for us, so why not for them?

I could see the expected economic cycle was just about to turn, so took the decision that my 'leader in waiting' should take over and, with luck, I would be away before anyone noticed. I had ensured that public services were the largest employers and had cast-iron pension schemes, benefits kept the possible 'agitators' satisfied and the educated would be kept busy just trying to survive. If we play our cards right, I believe that a fourth term of power can be easily achieved and that must be good for the 'Pregnant Party'. Even More