Regulation of electricians: consultation analysis

2. Introduction

Background

Currently anyone can call themselves an electrician, without the need for any qualifications or competency. This can lead to customers, especially domestic consumers, hiring unqualified or less competent individuals, resulting in faults that can lead to fire or personal injury, such as electric shocks.

There are currently voluntary self-regulatory systems in place. Qualified electricians can register with the Scottish Joint Industry Board and there are a number of organisations for electrical businesses or contractors rather than individuals:

Following representations from bodies in the electrical sector and a lack of independent evidence around the issue, the Scottish Government formed the Electricians Working Group to bring the industry together and attempt to build consensus for a way forward. The membership reflected industry, safety and consumer interests.

Although there were a variety of views on how to take specific issues forward, there was unanimous recognition that the system is complex and there is no easy way for a consumer to quickly determine if individual electricians or electrical businesses are competent to carry out required work. It was agreed that the protection of consumers and raising of awareness among consumers was needed.

On 23 November 2020 the Scottish Government launched "A consultation on the regulation of electricians" to consider whether regulatory measures are required to give greater protection to the public and reduce the level of poor electrical workmanship by a persistent rogue trader element. The consultation also discussed increasing consumer awareness and helping consumers identify or verify competent and qualified electricians. The consultation closed on 12 February 2021.

Respondent Profile

A total of 100 responses were received, using both the Scottish Government consultation platform Citizen Space and email. Of these, 29 were emails in support of the views submitted by SELECT (5 of those respondents also submitted separate responses to the consultation). 44 responses were from individuals and 40 from organisations while the other respondents did not specify. A list of the organisations responding is given in the Appendix. 46 respondents said they had worked as an electrician.