NAPIT added to Part P list

The Government has given the green light to the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers in its application to run a Competent Person scheme for Part P certification.

NAPIT joins BRE Certification (in association with the ECA), the NICEIC, ELECSA and BSI in being able to offer electrical contractors a certification scheme for work in repect of Part P of the Building Regulations, due to come into force on 1 January 2005.

NAPIT had originally been accepted as one of the scheme operators in partnership with Zurich Certification. However, NAPIT had to reapply when Zurich Certification was bought by the NICEIC.

In a written statement to parliament on 17 November, building regulations minister Phil Hope also said that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) had accepted the recommendations of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) and approved five schemes for registers for competent persons for “defined scope” in respect of Part P.

These cover areas such as gas installers, kitchen fitters and bathroom fitters and apply to those carrying out electrical installation work as “an adjunct to or in connection with their primary business activity”.

The five schemes are operated by CORGI Services, ELECSA, NAPIT, NICEIC Certification and the Oil Firing Technical Association for the Petroleum Industry. It is understood that the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) originally submitted a scheme but this was later withdrawn.

Regulation to give formal legal authorisation to these schemes will be laid down very early in the new session of Parliament.

In his statement, Hope also clarified some of the grey areas surrounding Part P. “The regulations will also provide that conservatories and porches are within the scope of Part P, that the special precautions necessary in kitchens also apply where part of a room is used as a kitchen and that telephone and extra low voltage wiring for communication and signalling purposes will be non-notifiable work unless located in a bathroom or other special location.”

Last month, we reported (EMC, Nov 2004, p7) that the ODPM had agreed that work on extra low voltage signal wiring in kitchens is non-notifiable. Originally, all minor work in kitchens and other special locations was to be notified to local authority building control departments, but the ODPM was lobbied on this issue by the ECA and security bodies NSI and BSIA.