Hello, Could somebody please advise on the pro's and con's of a permit to work system for electrical installation in tenanted domestic dwellings. Are they a legal necessity or just good practice when working on a large scale social housing scheme. All the risks involved are covered in the risk assessments for the task, including safe isolation,signage,PPE and the locking off procedures. Due to the vast area we cover the supervisor cannot be at each property at the required time needed to complete the permit(ie once the circuit has been made safe), so the system is failing in audit of the method statement. Is it viable to remove the permit to work system from the method statement as we do have additional measures in place????

Leerob I would say yes. Providing they follow procedures and do not carry out any live work, a permit system is this case would be a encumbrance procedure. We do not operate a permit system for work in domestic property. We have thirty + electricians covering 3000 sq miles it would not be possible unless they issued the permit to themselves. We have generic risk assessment and specific risk assessments and method statements they produce for each job. We also ensure all of our spark's are qualified to the 17th Edition.