Preparing for a successful technical assessment

Electrical or specialist contractors undertake different types of work (BS7671, Fire, Security, Data etc). However, whatever they do, the general approach of the technical assessor remains the same. The assessor will want to assess a firm's work, technical reference documents, test instruments, certification and personnel.

For the purposes of technical assessment, electrical contracting work is classified under a number of different categories. An assessor will wish to see two samples of a firm's work randomly selected on the day of assessment for each of the categories in which it is being assessed. 

The Assessment Officer will wish to review as a minimum the following areas of administration and site work relevant to the categories of work to be assessed:

• Principal Duty Holder
• Qualified Supervisor
• Non-technical assessment criteria 
• Technical reference library 
• Test instruments and equipment 
• Safe working practices 
• Certification and documentation 
• Design 
• Site visits 

 Further details are given below.

Principal Duty Holder

This is the person appointed by the company to have responsibility for the maintenance of the overall standard and quality of the electrical installation work.

This person shall ensure that appropriate information for certification is issued. The Principal Duty Holder must have an understanding of, and be responsible for, the health and safety and other statutory requirements relating to the electrical installation work being undertaken by the enterprise, and ensure that the appropriate Qualified Supervisors are assigned to electrical installation work.

The Principal Duty Holder does not need to be present for the whole of the Assessment, but will need to be in attendance for the Opening Meeting to ensure the Non-Technical Criteria of the assessment are satisfied. At the Opening Meeting, the Principal Duty Holder must agree with the Technical Assessment Officer the sites to be visited and the person to be nominated as the Qualified Supervisor for each category of work that is to be assessed.

The Principal Duty Holder can also be the Qualified Supervisor.

Qualified Supervisor

Part of the assessment process will be to confirm that the person(s) are competent for the work undertaken and they are fully versed in the inspection, testing, certification and reporting procedures for the categories of work for which they are responsible.

For companies being assessed as ‘competent persons’, a knowledge of building regulations is also required.

The Qualified Supervisor shall have day-to-day responsibility for the safety, quality and technical standard of the firm’s electrical work.

The Qualified Supervisor’s qualifications will be reviewed as part of the Assessment.  Evidence of qualifications should be made available for the Assessment i.e. copies of qualification certificates, ECS/JIB grading cards etc.

The Qualified Supervisor for the category of work to be assessed shall be present throughout the assessment process, including visiting site work.

 Non-technical assessment criteria

Criteria for non-technical areas of your company’s business to be assessed:

For Company Documentation the Technical Assessment Officer will need to see proof that you have a minimum of £2,000 000 Public Liability Insurance. This should be prominently displayed for employees to view.

For Health and Safety the Technical Assessment Officer will need to see:

• a written, signed and dated health and safety statement for the firm
• evidence that risk assessments are in use to cover all company activities.

For Customer Care the Technical Assessment Officer will need to see:

• written estimates and/or contracts are being used for the majority of your work
• a documented procedure for dealing with complaints
• recording method of such complaints
• a system for controlling operational documentation.

For Site Control the Technical Assessment Officer will need to see the system you use to ensure that the latest operational instruction or site drawings are in use by site staff.

 Technical reference library

There should be made available, on the day of assessment, current editions of relevant National and Industry Standards, Statutory Legislation and guidance material appropriate to the range, scale and category(s) of work under assessment.

A list of publications is available from the Inspection and Assessment Office upon request.

 Test instruments and equipment

There should be adequate numbers of serviceable test instruments and test leads appropriate to the range, scale, geographical spread and categories of work undertaken.

Any equipment used to measure the conformity to specified requirements, must be included in a calibration/accuracy verification programme, in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations. A complete listing of all test equipment together with records of all annual calibrations should be available to the Assessor along with a sample set of instruments relevant to each category of work undertaken.

If instruments are hired, some proof of hiring should be made available i.e. invoices.

 Safe working practices

There should be a defined system and equipment available to enable all operatives to work safely. These should include procedures for:

• isolation, locking off and proving dead
• inspection and testing (including the control of live testing)
• ensuring circuits are tested prior to their energisation or use by others.

Certification and documentation

The Electrical or Specialist Contractor should have issued appropriate certification in accordance with the relevant standards for each category of work under assessment.

There should be a defined system for controlling all certification and documentation. Records should be maintained to provide historical evidence for every job undertaken.

 Design

For firms under assessment for design of any category of work, the following will need to be demonstrated:

• there are relevant as fitted/record drawings, circuit and cable calculations, and system design parameters
• there is adequate design capability within the company for the work undertaken
• or (for those who are not involved in design) there are records to substantiate that design is carried out by others.

 Site visits

During the assessment it will be necessary for the Assessment Officer to inspect a minimum of two samples of the electrical installation work for each category of work under assessment. 

The Assessor will need to visit at least one completed and certificated installation for each of the categories of work being assessed.  In addition, a partially completed installation should also be available, if possible, for each category of work. Site visits are normally selected on a random basis of the day of assessment.  However, if access to completed work is difficult, please make prior arrangements at a selection of sites for the Assessor to visit.

The technical standard of the work should not be less than that detailed in the relevant technical reference document(s).

The relevant Qualified Supervisor must be available to visit site with the Technical Assessment Officer.

NOTE: for ‘Competent Persons’ assessment, domestic type installation work will need to be visited. You should notify the Inspection and Assessment Office immediately if your available work is geographically distant from your office, as this may require a two-part assessment to be arranged.

 Duration of assessment

Initial assessments normally take one full day. However, this is heavily dependent upon the number of categories to be assessed and the geographic location of sites with work to be assessed. If the company undertakes work in a number of categories, additional time may need to be allocated for the assessment.

Future surveillance visits may be undertaken in half a day, dependent largely on the above criteria.

Useful documents

Risk Assessment Document

For further information, please contact the ECA's Inspection and Assessment Department on 01623 404515.