If you run a business where you are a sole trader that is one thing, but if you employ people in an office or any other building then you have a legal obligation to ensure their safety “as far as is reasonable and practical”.
The problem that you may have is that there is a raft of legislation these days that you don’t stop to consider when you begin a business. After all, unless you are a lawyer, many of these laws cover things that wouldn’t ever occur to you. Let’s say you start an accountancy business. On your own. You gradually gain more clients and it gets to the point where you need to take on a junior accountant in order to handle all the work. Good for you!
Your business expands and now you have five people working for you. Great! But at what point do you consider having the wiring of the office that you are renting checked for safety? Err, right, You’re an accountant, not an electrician.
Yet the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 state that you are responsible for the safety of your workforce and that includes the safety of your electrical wiring. Heck, can anything go wrong with it? It’s hidden in the walls and the ceiling, so what could possibly happen to it? It couldn’t be anywhere more safe. Not even the office cat can get at it.
Here is a little eye-opener. Electrical wiring can and does deteriorate over time. It depends how much use it gets and upon the working environment, but it can deteriorate to the point where it is unsafe.
This is why you need to have fixed electrical testing on a regular basis carried out by a qualified electrician. Fixed electrical testing covers all of your wiring and sockets, together with any hard-wired appliances such as a cooker or a water heater that are not plugged in but wired directly into the circuit. (Anything that has a plug comes under the heading of portable appliance testing – and you need to have that done as well!).
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