All businesses are legally required, in the UK, to ensure all electrical equipment provided for use in a workplace, is safe to use. How the business does this is down to their own discretion. A thorough risk assessment is crucial - the assessment should identify potential risks, associated with electrical equipment, and what measures need to be taken to control the risks. Regular PAT testing is a recognised method for controlling the risks. It is [...]

In our humble opinion, to be able to do PAT testing, and to confirm an appliance is safe a person needs to be competent. To become competent they need suitable training, such as on a course or an in-house training programme as a new PAT tester in a PAT testing company. They also need to be qualified, City and Guilds 2377 is the industry standard. They also need experience, which you can only get on [...]

This is not an easy answer, but to keep it short - appliances should be tested as often as is necessary to maintain safety; how often is that? That is dependent on an assessment of the risk. Most people, companies, authorities, insurers etc consider annual testing to be the best policy, and it's generally accepted that if you get tested annually that, that is ok, assuming the equipment or use is not high risk. There [...]

The PAT Test is a process carried out to make sure an electrical appliance is as safe now as it was when it was manufactured, or as safe as it should be to meet British Standards (as some manufacturing techniques from other countries don't match our safety standards). The process involves a visual inspection by a competent person where they check the plug, fuse, flexible cable, appliance itself and markings to make sure they all [...]

The easiest way to sum this up is to say - if your electrical appliance turns off when you unplug it (take the power away) then it's mains powered and thus needs a PAT test. If it stays on then it is battery operated, and doesn't need a PAT test (but it's leads or chargers do) If it doesn't have a plug, and now is wired into a 'spur' that has a switch to switch [...]

Us too! It's crazy how many different terms there are for basically the same thing. It's all because some powers that be want to change the name, but people know it as PAT testing, and will likely keep it that way forever! Basically, we call it PAT testing, but it in the trade is (In-Service) Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment (ISITEE). It's been called that for years and we have never had a client [...]