Five PAT Testing Myths That Cost Welsh Businesses Money
Some of the most confident statements made about PAT testing are wrong, and a few of them are wrong in ways that cost you money every year. We'd rather you knew, even where the truth means we test fewer of your items.
Myth one: it's a legal requirement to test annually
It isn't. The HSE says plainly that the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 do not make annual testing a legal requirement. The actual duty is that systems are maintained so as to prevent danger, so far as is reasonably practicable. Annual testing is a convention, and for a lot of low-risk office equipment it's more often than your own risk assessment would justify. Cost to you: testing you didn't need.
Myth two: new equipment must be tested before use
No. New equipment should arrive in a safe condition, and the HSE's position is that it should not require a formal portable appliance inspection or test. Give it a look over for transit damage, put it on your register, and test it when its first interval comes round. If you've just fitted out a new office and someone has quoted you to test every box-fresh item in it, you may be paying for a formal test that HSE guidance does not normally require for undamaged new equipment.
Myth three: no sticker means no test
Labels are useful. They are not the law. There's no legal requirement to label tested equipment, and a drawer full of stickers is not a maintenance record. What matters is the register: what you own, where it is, when it was checked, what happened when it failed. We label anyway, because it helps your staff and it helps us next time, but if anyone tells you the sticker is what makes you compliant, they've got it backwards.
Myth four: the testing company carries the responsibility
This is the expensive one. You can appoint a competent contractor, but doing so does not remove the employer's responsibility to ensure suitable arrangements exist. Contractors are also responsible for carrying out their work competently. Make sure the inventory is complete and that reported failures are acted upon.
Myth five: PAT testing covers your electrics
It covers appliances that plug in. It does not cover your fixed installation, the wiring, the consumer unit, the sockets themselves. That's a separate inspection and a separate report. We've walked into buildings with immaculate appliance records and a fuse board nobody had looked at in fifteen years. If your last electrical paperwork was a PAT certificate, half the picture is missing.
What to do with all that
Ask your provider three questions: how did you arrive at my intervals, what's on my register that doesn't need testing this year, and what happens when something fails. Clear answers mean you're being advised. Vague ones mean you're being invoiced. There's more on our PAT testing page about how we approach it.
Get in touch
Want a second opinion on what you're currently paying for? Get in touch and we'll go through it honestly.
