Huge Fine For Electrical Test Certificate!

coming up on this week's news a court hands a  landlord a mega fine of £10,000 over a missing   EICR electrical contractors slam the standard  of job applicants and the robots are coming   for your job in a trial their performance is  said to have exceeded all expectations welcome   to electrical news weekly in association with  Solar Trade Sales your easy One-Stop shop for   all things solar whether you're listening in the  van on site or down at the wholesale counter I'm  

Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of  the electrical industry news to save you the   trouble and if you think you spotted the two  words that I've been challenged to slip into   this week's show comment with them below for the  chance to win a prize although honesty compels me   to tell you that the second word is more of a  phrase this week the challenge word committee   clearly haven't recovered from their all-inclusive  summer holiday yet one of the biggest fines ever  

for a missing EICR has been handed down by a court  on the south coast a Hastings landlord was fined   £10,000 after failing to provide a satisfactory  certificate to his Borough Council it's a legal   requirement to show the report if a local  Authority asks for it industry sources say   the five figure fine shows that the authorities  are starting to get tough over electrical safety   an appeal by the landlord to the property section  of the first tier tribunal was struck out earlier  

for failing to comply with directions given  by the tribunal Hastings lead counsellor for   housing Glenn Haffenden says that regular And  Timely checks of the electrics in properties is   an important safeguard for occupiers as faults  may not always be visible he says his team will   work with property owners to become comp employ  but if there's no engagement then the council   won't hesitate to take enforcement action the  sum of the fine will inevitably be compared  

with the same amount that was levied last month  against Dunngannon based Swift control services   limited that Contracting firm was found to be  partially responsible for the death of a Teenage   electrical Apprentice 18-year-old Adam Newall  was electrocuted after coming into contact with   a live circuit on a new build site in Moneymore  in Northern Island in 2021 The Firm which received   the £10,000 penalty at Derry Crown Court had  earlier pleaded guilty to a single health  

and safety offence in other news electrical  contracting firms have this week slammed the  

quality of those applying for installer vacancies  of 125 businesses responding to a survey almost   half said that the applicants consistently lack  sufficient knowledge or the skills to do the job   they also agree that pay expectations are way  too high among job Seekers one respondent said   that applicants are not as skilled as they think  they are and in some cases they are nowhere near   where they should be another said that young  people coming into the trade struggle to cope  

with the academics of the electrical courses and  consequently leave reacting to the results of the   poll the electrical contractors associations  Andrew Eldred has called on the government to   work closely with the industry to close the  huge skills Gap he also said that ministers   must listen to electricians themselves about what  needs to be done could the skills Gap be filled  

by robots? that was the question that researchers  set out to answer in a major real world experiment   in Denmark the country is facing a shortfall of  6,700 electricians and a third of Contracting   firms regularly turn down work due to shortages  of installers it thinks automation could be the   answer the electrical employers body and the  Trade union teamed up to organise the trial the   idea is to free electricians from the heaviest  most monotonous and repetitive tasks Engineers  

tested the machines on 50 routine electrical  installation and maintenance tasks the result   says robot technician Mikkel Viager was far more  significant than the team had dared to Hope in   fact 13 of the tasks were identified as suitable  for the Bots these included cable pulling behind   ceilings and walls hole drilling for electrical  installations and channel cutting for wiring the   robots were particularly good at measuring and  marking up the locations of sockets and conduit  

they use a 3D scanner to read the room and then  plot the installations directly from the technical   drawing onto walls floors and ceilings some robots  can even print the drawing directly onto the floor   other jobs that they can help with are overhead  work wire stripping and vacuum cleaning Maria   Shard Burnson from the employers body Tech Technic  said the study showed enormous potential she says   that it shows that automation could help ensure 

that a company can say yes to orders that they   would otherwise have to decline due to staff  shortages and it debunks the myth that robots   are taking jobs from people a further Advantage  is that unlike some electricians the robots are   very demure very mindful in the meantime human  electricians will have to keep the show on the  

road which in turn means a healthy market for  Tools and PPE but now an industry warning has   gone out over the popular shopping website  and Gordon's personal face favourite Temu   a Channel 4 probe into the Chinese platform has  revealed that Safety products for sale had fake   safety certificates and were unfit for purpose  in the dispatch's documentary reporter Ellie   Flynn reveals that some equipment advertised on  the platform doesn't perform as advertised and  

falsely claims to have safety certificates  one notable instance involved two pairs of   pliers being sold as having electrical insulation  properties that were advertised as being certified   by VDE the established electrical product tester  and certifier however VDE's Hendrik Schafer   confirmed that the tools had not been checked by  The Institute Flynn discovered that the product   listings featured altered photos of genuine safety  certificates with the name of the t-u merchant  

superimposed over the original certificate holder  name Schafer explained that if the certification   is not correct then the insulation of the tools  may not work and the result could be an electric   shock or in the worst case it could lead to  death the British safety industry Federation   says that it has long warned about the widespread  availability of substandard PPE and safety kit in   its own investigations the the organisation found  that a staggering 79% of PPE items sourced from  

non-member vendors including Online Marketplace  and High Street retailers failed to meet basic   safety standards for example safety glasses from  a High Street retailer failed impact resistance   tests and lacked Essential Safety documentation  despite the retailers assurances that this would   be addressed the glasses remained on sale for  over two months after the failure was identified   for its part Temu told dispatches that it doesn't  allow forgeries and will take action against any  

any sellers involved if such cases are found  another product safety probe This Time by the  

electrical safety first charity has discovered  that all but one of 26 outdoor electrical products   tested over a year- long period posed a risk of  electric shock even worse 46% of those tested   had both a risk of fire and electric shock the  goods include outdoor lights electric barbecues   and water heaters bought on temu eBay Amazon and  wish a common problem was substandard plugs and   fake fuses others failed to prevent water Ingress  which meant people were exposed to the risk of  

electric shock when a device got wet this included  Goods such as outdoor heaters and lights which   are often left outside one water immersion heater  which could be used for paddling pools caught fire   when not submerged the charity said that's going  to ruin your afternoon of gumdrops in the garden   with Grandad isn't it electrical safety first boss  Leslie Rud said that the Persistence of dangerous   products on online marketplaces points to a major 

problem that urgently needs addressing she is   calling for a total overhaul of product safety  laws still on electrical safety we've teamed  

up with tis again for the annual Safe4September  campaign this is an initiative to highlight the   importance of isolating circuits during testing  and inspection we're really passionate about the   use of dedicated safe isolation kits which have  all the necessary tools to check that a circuit is   dead label it as isolated and lock it to prevent  someone else from turning it on accidentally the   good news is we're holding a prize draw for three 

tis safe isolation kits exclusively for viewers   who have completed the free CPD training module  if if you haven't done yet and needless to say   we recommend that you do check out the link for  the CPD and lots of other resources in the show   notes you can also take a copy of your eFIXX  safe isolation CPD certificate along to your   local wholesaler for an additional 10% off  the tis kit much like the man who went to the   doctor because he couldn't say his Fs or thes you 

can't say fairer than that and our usual reminder  

that we're in the market for your stories your  projects and your recommendations as we'd like   to share them with the wider eFIXX community in  September we're focusing on Commercial Lighting   tools and workwear and of course the safe for  September campaign send us pictures of your   installs or let us know if you've come across  any new kit that's making your job easier now  

just before we get to your favourite bit of the  show where I reveal last week's challenge words   and winners we want to thank our premium Partners  we couldn't make the news without you first up   it's the people who've created the Swiss army  knife of solar inverters along with all weather   batteries very much the Boy Scouts of the solar  industry it's Sunsynk up next they're resolving   ventilation problems one property at a time  offering a simplistic ventilation design service  

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products it's Doncaster cables with an incredible   range of equipment from EV charge points  through industrial sockets and switches to kit   for explosive areas plus they supplied gear for a  Campari factory so they'll always have a place in   my heart it's Scame big thanks to all we really  appreciate your ongoing support for the news if   you think you know the words that I've smuggled  into Today's Show pop your guess into the comments  

we'll take all the correct guesses and select one  at random to be the winner of an eFIXX goodie bag   prize answers submitted after about lunchtime on  the Thursday after release will not be entered   into the draw now let's reveal the winners of last  week's challenge word competition the words were   karetta and marigolds and the winner from the  last episode is Ian Williams 2239 so well done   to you Ian especially as you got the spelling abs  absolutely spot on make sure you click the get  

involved Link in the show notes to claim your  prize thanks for listening to this episode of   electrical news weekly in association with solar  trade sales your easy One-Stop shop for all things   solar make sure you subscribe to receive the next  update thanks for listening and until next time   have a great week stay safe out there and remember  there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm