Hi all, hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

Like most businesses we are allowing staff to work from home by providing them with IT kit (laptops), and office chairs. I have two questions on this that I need help with.

1. How are people handling the PAT testing of equipment sent to staff homes? We have c.220 laptops to test, but how do we do this if we cannot access people's homes nor ask them to travel to the office? I know there's a whole lot of insurance / liability issues here as well as people's homes are not insured as places of work.

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition. However, the Regulations do not specify what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently (ie they don't make inspection or testing of electrical appliances a legal requirement, nor do they make it a legal requirement to undertake this annually).

How are people managing this one?

2. I've read the HSE guidance on DSE assessments for home workers. It states "There is no increased risk from DSE work for those working at home temporarily. So in that situation employers do not need to ask them to carry out home workstation assessments". At what point does the situation become permanent? After 6 months?, a year?

Any help or guidance from people who are or have managed these situations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Wess

Originally Posted by: Wessley Duggan

How are people handling the PAT testing of equipment sent to staff homes?

As you note, there is no PAT testing requirement for this sort of equipment (we have sent PCs and screens home, not machinery, so in accordance with HSG107 I conclude it does not need a PAT test).  When we were all in the office actually we did PAT test every two years, because it's cheap and it was done at the same time as a formal inspection and logged.

We've circulated guidance to all staff to check cables visually, and particularly if their working arrangements ar such that they have to unpack and pack away their IT equipment every day.  We have also said that it is forbidden to chain extension leads or stack multi-blocks, but obviously we can't tell if that's being complied with or not. I believe that if they've been given clear instruction and a staff member disregards that and injures themselves, they are off on a frolic of their own choosing, at that's their problem.

Nobody knows.  We have decided that temporary has now become long term and we've just started asking staff to record a formal workstation self-assessment for their home arrangements.  I'm not sure what we are going to do with all the ones that report something that in the office would have been a failure.

On the bright side, it's pushed me to finally sort out my home office seat height and get rid of the extra cushion I've been sitting on for six months.

For electrical 'office equipment' the HSE guidance used to suggest an interval of 2-3 years between 'checks' as the likelihood of damage / defect was low. However, laptops do have increased risk of damage as the cables get moved and abused. 

There is no requirement to PAT, and from experience in organisations there is rarely any defect found when PAT are carried out on a regular basis. I cannot recall any PC or laptop being on the 'found faulty' list which tended to only to pull out just a handful of the usual suspects (extension leads, cleaning machines and old heaters stored in cupboards).

I do however know someone whose heritage thatched cottage was destroyed by an exploding laptop battery which was on charge whilst she walked the dog. (Dodgy Sony batch of 4m batteries in the 2000's).

Practical advice to staff could include: not leaving items plugged in, avoiding daisy-chaining, (you do also provide good quality multi outlet extensions don't you?). My employer back in the 2000's also gave me a simple plug-in gadget to check the house sockets. I would provide a means for staff to report defective or suspect items, and get these sorted in some way.

As an inspector i once prohibited the use of a vacume where i could see the actual wire conductor in 10 places where the insulation had been "cut" - the buisness owners response was - "Well it passed its PAT test !" And yes it did indead have a sticker saying it had been tested in the last 12 months!