Nearly a quarter of all electrical accidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) involve portable electrical equipment. The major cause of the accidents reported is due to the failure to inspect, safety test or maintain the equipment concerned.
Definition – Portable or transportable electrical equipment includes any item of electrical equipment which if required may be moved from place to place between periods of use and is connected to an electricity supply via a flexible lead and plug and socket arrangement. This covers a wide range of appliances from computers to white goods and electric beds.
There are legal duties on manufacturers and suppliers of portable electrical equipment covering the initial integrity (safety) of new electrical equipment. The ongoing integrity (safety) rests with the employer. The Electricity at Work Regulations state “as may be necessary to prevent danger, all (electrical) systems must be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger”. In order to ensure compliance with the Electricity at Work Regulations, guidance from the Health and Safety Executive advice an ongoing programme of formal visual inspection and formal visual inspection and testing.
Leuchie under this policy requires all portable electrical equipment to be visually inspected and tested on a routine basis and following any major repair or modification. The policy applies to portable electrical equipment used and owned by all areas of the house.
The objectives of this policy are to prevent death or injury from electrical shock, electrical burn, explosions caused by electricity or fires of an electric origin.
Testing – The frequency of visual inspections and visual inspections and testing should be determined by the risk assessment. To ensure best practice testing should however be carried out on new equipment introduced into the workplace and equipment brought on to the premises by someone else (equipment which does not belong to Leuchie). All equipment should be tested at a 12–18-month interval but more often than this if the risk assessment requires it.
All equipment which has been tested and has passed should be clearly labelled as such, along with the date which the test was carried out. Testing of portable electrical appliances should only be carried out by someone who had been trained and is competent to do so. Any item which fails a portable appliance test should be removed from use immediately and if not disposed of should be labelled to show it is out of use until it can be fixed.
A register of the equipment which has been tested along with the date and name of the person carrying out the test should be kept.
Training – PAT testing courses are available from some colleges, and on line and they are usually half day courses. If you do not have a trained staff member to carry out your PAT testing, then you will require an electrician to this for you.
Responsibility – The effectiveness of the portable electrical appliance policy depends on the co-operation of every staff member and volunteer within the organisation. Suitable records should be maintained to show what appliances have been inspected & tested and these records should be kept for audit purposes.
Register – The portable appliance register is kept by the facilities department on the shared drive. A copy of this can be found in the fire and evacuation folder.
Guest’s portable appliances will be tested within 36 hours of the guest’s arrival. The care team will leave all electrical appliances found whilst unpacking in an obvious area for the facilities team to test.