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Posted By Messy Shaw
I understand that when a conducting portable appliance testing (PAT), the aim is to ensure the electrical safety of that appliance.
However, on a recent fire risk assessment, I noted under an office desk that several in-line adaptors plugged into each other in series. If that wasn't bad enough, two of them also had 'cube' type adaptors plugged in as well!
Then the whole mess was completely covered with files, boxes of paper and bags of goodness knows what.
All plugs and both cube adaptors had been subject to a recent PAT and were plastered with PAT stickers.
This was obviously bad practice bordering on dangerous. However, the customer has been given a certificate saying the appliances and leads are 'safe' to use. So, should the PAT electrician have picked this up or is it outside of the remit of PAT testing?
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Messy
Although the situation you describe may strictly be outside the remit of a PAT tester, I think it is reasonable to expect the tester to alert you to the potential fire risk. However, that may depend on the training provided to the tester; if the training was merely how to carry out the testing, without consideration of the bigger picture, the tester may not even have spotted the situation.
Paul
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Posted By andymak
I have known of offices where everything is unplugged on PAT day then it's all plugged up again.
The remit is to ensure electrical safety of the equipment however I would have to say something to the office manager / client about the potential fire risks and how to mitigate them.
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Posted By Ian Gardner
A 'PAT test' never certifies that applinaces and leads are 'safe to use'.
It mearly states that they were inspected and tested, and if passed, are deemed to meet certain criteria and requirements at the point of testing.
If the tester had seen the arrangement of leads and adaptors in situ as you state, then I would fully expect them to report it as a potentially dangerous situation, regardless of whether the appliances passed the inspection and test or not.
But lets not forget, it's also down to the users and the management to ensure a safe working environment, so everybody in that office, and the company as a whole, are failing in their duty, not just (poosibly) the person who carried out the PAT.
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Posted By Ian Gardner
Apologies for ropey spelling in the above post!
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Posted By bobsafe's wing man
Does the electrician not have a duty, under their profesional body, do report or take action on anything that couold be deemed unsafe such as daisy-chaining etc?
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Posted By Coshh Assessor
But the person doing the PAT isn't necessarily an electrician or a member of a professional body.
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Posted By f5refresh
Right or wrongly, PAT testers are not necessarily electricians or potential fire spotters therefore rather than trying to pin the responsibility on the PAT tester (duty of care etc etc) - look at your own staff and re-train them on how to use extension leads properly without overloading, then monitor that they do not. You might also want to install more sockets as it is quite clear you don't have sufficient numbers, therefore I would say this is a management issue, so its down to you and nobody else!!
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Posted By Messy Shaw
Thanks for the replies everyone.
This is a large organisation with 1000s of staff & nearly 100 properties (most are sleeping risks)who contract PAT work to an electrical company.
I am advising the organisation to review the PAT system and perhaps agree a joint protocol with the contractors which will allow the 'sparky' to report concerns & possible hazards that would not necessarily be reported by standard PAT procedures.
My photos were worth their weight in gold when describing the absolute mess under this desk and will be valuable for use during training to replace 'mocked up' images that I used to use!!
Thanks once again for everyone's input
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