Grateful for views on this one. I'm aware of the various levels of checks - user checks, formal visual inspections and combined inspection/testing. In my organisation, we have thousands of staff who I know have not been given (basic) training in checking electrical equipment before and during use. However, we employ the services of an agent who carry out visual inspections, combined inspection/testing and PAT on our behalf. From what I can see, there is no legal requirement to train staff to carry out user checks (more a suggestion to ensure electrical safety), but is my assumption incorrect? If I'm wrong, I'm not sure how we comply with providing simple training to the number of staff we have. Any views appreciated.

Personally I suggest that you look beyond what legal requirement there may or may not be and consider this from a risk management point of view. There have been endless debates on here about PAT etc. I suggest that a robust system of USER checks form an essential part of any maintenance regime and are in my (admittedly humble) opinion probably just as (more?) likely to identify any issues with 'in service' kit, than either formal visual checks and actual testing.