How to best prepare your business for PAT testing

By |2023-09-11T13:45:57+00:00September 11th, 2023|PAT Testing Info|

Whilst you don't really need to do anything to prepare your business for PAT Testing, it's a good idea to at least be aware it's going to happen and let your staff know. If for no other reason than to reduce disruption. When staff don't know who we are we get asked by everyone "who are you?" and we have to explain to them all who we are and what we do, and that doesn't half slow things down, which in turn causes disruption. If you can just tell your staff that we're coming in on whatever day [...]

A Step-by-Step Guide to Ensuring Electrical Safety

By |2023-08-16T14:31:24+00:00July 7th, 2023|PAT Testing Info|

PAT Testing Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Ensuring Electrical Safety Welcome to our comprehensive guide on PAT testing, the essential process for ensuring electrical safety in any environment. Whether you're a business owner, facilities manager, or simply someone concerned about the safety of electrical appliances, this step-by-step guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools to confidently conduct PAT testing. We understand that electrical safety is paramount, and that's why we've designed this guide to be accessible, informative, and easy to follow. From understanding the basics of PAT testing to learning about the different types [...]

Working with a local Portable Appliance Tester

By |2023-05-14T17:39:06+00:00June 9th, 2022|PAT Testing Info|

The benefits of working with a local Portable Appliance Tester Working with a PAT tester Just because you don’t have your own in-house Health and Safety specialist, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have access to the best health and safety services. The HSE is awash with useful information but where do you start? It's hard, you need to concentrate on what most affects your business, but not doing something because you didn't look into it, doesn't wash when something goes wrong. I read Health and Safety for dummies when I was starting out - god that [...]

Plugs without sleeved pins

By |2023-06-29T19:06:09+00:00May 25th, 2022|PAT Testing Info|

Plugs without Sleeved Pins Plugs without Sleeved Pins Plugs without sleeves on the pins - these plugs have not been manufactured in the UK for 40 years! This makes the plug very old, and you have to ask yourself, does it still meet British Standards? It may work perfectly fine, but imagine that's powering a lamp and your grandchild goes to unplug it to plug in their phone charger, and their little fingers catch the pins, that are not insulated... they'd get an electric shock. Is that not a good reason to [...]

We need our office PAT testing – but how many appliances do we have?

By |2022-04-24T20:54:58+00:00April 24th, 2022|Safety in offices|

Office PAT testing - how many appliances do we have? How many appliances do we have in our office? It happens a lot - we're contacted for a price for PAT testing an office; the prospective client tells us how much equipment they have, we price it and when we turn up to do the job, it's a lot more than expected. So how do we prevent this happening? When this happens it can cause problems for you and us.. The job is going to take us longer than expected so may affect what we have [...]

Are your staff returning to the office or working from home?

By |2022-06-09T09:38:18+00:00January 28th, 2022|PAT Testing Info|

Are your staff returning to the office or working from home? It's nearly 2 years since Mr Johnson (the Prime Minister) announced we were all to lockdown and work from home, and even now some of us are still doing that, whilst others have returned or are planning to return to work. We're not talking parties at the office, we mean proper work, the place people go to do their work. Whichever category you or your business falls into you need to consider this... If your staff have returned to work, or you are planning to return [...]

Electric Heater Safety – including why you must not plug heaters into extension leads

By |2023-08-11T12:09:04+00:00October 25th, 2021|Health and Safety|

Electric Heater Safety Tips This is a true story, that happened in October 2021. It was a Tuesday in October 2021; we had a 3-man team working in a busy office/production business in Newcastle upon Tyne. The company is very well run, with many intelligent personal, many of whom are electrical engineers - we're saying this to show that even people who should know better can make mistakes. In the reception office, where it was cold, mainly because the building had no real ceilings, just a corrugated roof, so the receptionist was running an electric convection [...]

Workplaces returning to work must prioritise compliance

By |2023-05-14T20:18:39+00:00July 28th, 2021|Health and Safety|

With the end of lockdown, many companies are preparing to return to working in the office. However, the HSE is urging businesses to pay close attention to compliance regulations, as many properties may have gone without inspection during the lockdown period. Electrical compliance is extremely important to mitigate risk and stay within the law. Over the lockdown period, it is likely that many electrical appliances' certificates of compliance may have expired, meaning they must be renewed and inspected by professionals to be safe for use. The Electricity at Work Regulations state that no electrical equipment should be used when its [...]

PAT Testing Labels

By |2023-08-11T12:10:29+00:00June 14th, 2021|PAT Testing Info|

Our PAT testing labels We use our own professional branded company labels; we have used labels in this format and colour scheme for many years. Every label has its own unique ID number, which matches just one appliance in our database; the appliance it is attached to. Each label is pre-printed with the month and year the test takes place; it doesn't need the retest date on as that has not been a requirement since 2012. Showing the date the test took place is the most important, and the PAT Testing Certificate Report you [...]

HSE update “Thorough examination and testing of equipment” guidance

By |2023-05-23T14:56:53+00:00May 11th, 2021|DRA News / Info|

The HSE advises businesses to get their electrical inspections done as soon as possible The HSE advises businesses that have missed their usual ‘retest’ due to the pandemic to get that test done as soon as possible to bring their records up to date. In early April (2021) the Health and Safety Executive updated their guidance for “thorough examination and testing of equipment“, which includes electrical equipment, and this was agreed with by the Portable Appliance Testing Trade Association - and we agree too. The HSE have stated that during [...]

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