Electrical equipment
How Zurich can help businesses meet their duty of care
The Electricity at Work Regulations (EAW) 1989
impose a duty of care on all employers, employees
and self-employed workers to make sure that any
electrical equipment or systems are safe to use.
What does the legislation require?
The employer is the primary duty holder and as
such has primary responsibility to maintain electrical
installations and equipment. In the context of
EAW – and stated in the HSE interpretation of
the regulations ‘The Memorandum of Guidance
HSR 25’ – regular inspection is an integral part
of any electrical maintenance programme. The
main purpose of a routine in-service inspection
is to report defects that pose a risk of injury to
people or damage to property.
Also relevant are the Institution of Electrical
Engineers (IEE) Wiring Regulations. These are
aimed at low voltage installations, so will include
the majority of those found in a normal workplace.
The HSE advises that by adhering to the IEE
regulations the duty holder is also likely to
comply with the requirements of EAW.
EAW requires in-service inspection of electrical
installations, plant and portable appliances by
a competent person such as Zurich Engineering,
a UKAS accredited inspection body.
• F or electrical installations, the installer is
responsible for ensuring that the design of
the installation is adequate. The user/owner is
responsible for ensuring that the installation
operates safely and is suitably maintained.
Before inspecting an installation for the first
time, the competent person will verify that
the installation certificate and drawings exist.
• F or plant, the manufacturer/supplier is
responsible for ensuring that the design of
the plant is adequate. The installer of the
plant is responsible for ensuring that the
installation is adequate. The user/owner
is responsible for ensuring that the plant is
operated safely and is suitably maintained.
• F or portable appliances, the manufacturer/
supplier is responsible for ensuring that
the design of the appliance is adequate.
The user/owner is responsible for ensuring
that the appliance is operated safely and
is suitably maintained.
In 2006/2007 the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) issued a total of 232
enforcement notices to businesses under
EAW, including 117 immediate prohibitions.
How can we help your business to
comply with EAW?
Our in-service inspection is primarily aimed at controlling risks associated with:
• f ailureofenclosure–thecasingofequipmentthatpreventscontact
with live parts and electrical components or wiring that could lead
to a person receiving an electric shock
• f ailureofelectricalcomponentsorwiringthatcouldleadtoignition
and ultimately fire
• f ailureofcomponentsorelectricaldevicesthataredesignedtoprotect
people – that is, safety and protective devices, such as residual current
devices (RCDs), miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) and fuses.
As well as reporting defects, routine in-service inspections are aimed
at assessing an item’s fitness for continued use; ensuring that health and
safety conditions are maintained and that any deterioration can be detected
and remedied in good time.
In-service inspections are not aimed at assessing the item’s suitability for
intended use (that is, whether the item is suitable for the purpose for which
it is to be used) and does not take account of, or include an assessment of,
your business’s risk assessments or control measures.
Real life examples
Most electrical injuries and fatalities arise from operating poorly maintained
electrical equipment; fires ignited by poor electrical installations and faulty
electrical appliances.
The following incidents are real and taken from the Health and
Safety Executive.
• Anemployeereceivedanelectricshockthatbrokebothshoulders.
• A
nemployeetriedtoapplyinsulatingtapetoaliveelectricalcableand
received an electric shock.
• A
nemployeereceivedafatalelectricshockwhilstexaminingafaulty
air conditioning unit.
• Aworkerreceiveda240Voltelectricshockwhilstusingapressurewasher.
The incidents above resulted in fines being imposed but the true cost is
significantly higher when other factors such as lost time, legal costs,
management time, employee relationships and brand damage are taken
into account. Additionally, such incidents can also have a negative impact
on a customer’s commercial insurance programme.
2
Recommended frequency
of inspection
• F orelectricalinstallations,thefrequency
of inspection can be anything from
3 months to 10 years depending on the
situation (for example, a building site
would be 3 months but domestic
premises would be 10 years) as
prescribed in British Standards.
• F orplant,inspectionsaregenerally
annual based on experience (or
‘custom and practice’).
• F orportableappliances,thefrequency
is generally between 1 month and
5 years depending on the type of
appliance and where it is being used.
Guidance on frequency is available from
the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).
Any frequency can be selected where an
assessment of the installation, plant or
portable appliance shows that frequency
to be appropriate.
Combining expertise and understanding
We’ve been helping our customers to identify, manage and control engineering
business risks for over 80 years. We have a nationwide team of up to 500 highly
trained and experienced engineer surveyors.
An individual approach
Inspections on time
We understand that all businesses are different, so we
take an individual approach and tailor our solutions.
We have the knowledge and experience to deal with all
aspects of engineering risk as they apply to your business,
and will work with you in the way that suits you best.
We work with customers to ensure that plant is examined
when required and if an inspection is likely to become
overdue, we have systems and processes in place to alert
you so that it can quickly be rescheduled. As a consequence
your business is less likely to suffer from plant failures,
protecting your turnover.
Investing in people
We invest heavily in training to maintain our engineer
surveyors’ levels of technical expertise. This includes using
the latest online technology to assess our staff and to
identify training needs.
We regularly assess and audit our technical staff to ensure
that their understanding of key technical and health and
safety matters meets our exacting standards. We’ve
established a benchmark for our engineer surveyors
and ensure that all of our people are above it.
Harnessing technology
Advice you can trust
We are a Type A (fully independent) UKAS* accredited
inspection body and are entirely removed from the
manufacture, operation or maintenance of plant. You can
therefore be confident that our advice is always independent
and objective.
Our technical services team are on hand to discuss any issue
a customer might have. These are senior engineers with a vast
amount of engineering experience combining industry expertise
as diverse as marine, nuclear, petrochemical and mining.
Our engineer surveyors use some of the latest technology
whentheycarryoutinspections.Forexample,their
Toughbook laptops allow them to generate reports while they
are at your site, resulting in faster, higher quality reports.
Instant access to engineering reports
The Toughbooks also contain our technical manuals, health
and safety procedures and special customer instructions. This
comprehensive library of information means that if a technical
issue arises during an inspection our engineer surveyors have
the answers immediately to hand.
It also allows you to see dates for upcoming inspections
– so you can plan shutdowns and maintenance work to
cause minimum disruption to your business.
Our online reporting tool Crimson gives you instant access
to your reports and to management information on our
inspection activity wherever and whenever you need it.
*United Kingdom Accreditation Service
Finding out more
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you with statutory inspections and
other areas of engineering risk, please speak to your broker or usual Zurich contact.
ZurichEngineering,126HagleyRoad,Edgbaston,BirminghamB169PF
0113 202 8770 (Northern office) or08456017039(Central and Southern office)
Email – [email protected]
Telephone –
3
ZE0060.02 (127503A02) (01/10) RRD
Zurich Engineering is a trading name of Zurich Management Services Limited
Registered in England and Wales number 2741053.
Registered Office: The Zurich Centre, 3000 Parkway,
Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire, PO15 7JZ