Health, Safety and Environmental Practice in Electrical Work
Health, Safety and Environmental Practice in Electrical Work
This domain tests your ability to act as the competent person: turning the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 (EAWR) into real systems of work, controlling live-work risk, and handling the environmental duties that come with replacing cable, lamps and distribution boards.
The statutory spine
- EAWR reg 4 requires electrical systems to be constructed and maintained so as to prevent danger; reg 5 requires equipment of adequate strength and capability; reg 6 covers adverse and hazardous environments; reg 14 restricts work on or near live conductors to cases where it is unreasonable to work dead; reg 16 requires competence.
- HASAWA 1974 ss.2-7, MHSWR 1999 (suitable and sufficient risk assessment), COSHH 2002 (fluxes, solvents, dust), RIDDOR 2013 (reportable incidents) and CDM 2015 on construction sites.
- Environment: WEEE controls for lamps and control gear, duty of care under the waste regulations, and asbestos checks before drilling in older buildings.
Safe isolation
Prove an approved GS 38 voltage indicator on a proving unit, isolate at the origin, lock off and tag, test L-N, L-E and N-E at the point of work, then re-prove the indicator. Non-contact detectors indicate; they do not prove dead.
Worked example
A submain feeding a first-floor board is to be isolated. The indicator proves on the proving unit, then reads dead L-N and L-E at the board, but the post-test proving check shows a low-battery symbol. The correct action is to stop, obtain a replacement instrument and repeat the entire sequence. The reasoning: the only defensible result is one bracketed by two successful proving checks with the same instrument, because a failing battery can produce a false dead reading.
Traps
Treating a switched-off MCB as isolation; testing only L-E and missing a borrowed neutral; fitting a lock with no warning notice; assuming a consumer unit is dead because its main switch is off.