Should I test my electrical equipment more frequently? We are a housing association with a direct labour organisation who carry out repairs and refurbishment to social housing. All are small works, new bathroom, kitchen, central heating system, damp treatment, plumbing, joinery etc. We do not build or demolish. We test our electrical equipment annually and an audit of testing results found no electrical failures. Failures were found during the formal visual inspection element of the PAT test. The works we carry out are classed as construction in the CDM regulations but they are at the lower risk end in terms of tools use and site conditions so my question is - given the above information - do we need to move to a higher frequency of PAT testing say three or six monthly, or is an annual PAT test supplemented by a quarterly, documented formal visual examination carried out by trained staff suitable and sufficient. Thank you Mark

Since the annual test is not identifying any electrical failures, that would appear to be sufficient in this case, but more regular formal visual inspections would almost certainly be worthwhile as these appear to be picking up issues which could become electrical failures eventually. Presumably the users of the equipment also check it over each time they use it for any obvious damage and are aware of what action to take should they identify any issues? Alan

Yes they do carry out pre-use inspections but the failures reported would seem to demostrate weakness in our employees knowledge of our procedures and systems and therfore a weakness in our management. We will look at refreshing their training to ensure they are provided with all the IIT&S they need. Thanks Alan

User checks should be undertaken at every use and users should be competent to undertake these and encouraged to report/quarantine any suspect items. Annual testing is fine IMHO bsed on your records. Formal checks could be dispensed with if users were competent and suitably encouraged.