Every year, there are 350,000 serious injuries as a direct result of electrical accidents.
The one compliance area we see more and more often falling into the ‘let’s not do it to save money category’ is Portable Appliance Testing (PAT testing for short). Yet if this is carried out properly this additional form of safety can actually save business money, time and a lot of risk to their employees.
Any business owner knows of their duty of care to all employees and customers, and most have a complex Health & Safety policy in place to protect them. It’s recognised that many business owners look at health and safety as more of a burden to them, rather a policy that is there to help protect not only employees and customers but also the business owner and the welfare of the company.
The process of PAT involves inspecting and testing all the electrical appliances on the site to ensure they function correctly and are safe to use.
If during the testing an appliance is flagged up as unsafe, general repairs are carried out or instructions are provided as the best course of action to take. As a last resort, an item may be failed; but if so, it’s in the best interest of potential users to take this out of service.
Failing an appliance test is actually beneficial because once that appliance is taken away, it is no longer a threat, and therefore no accidents will occur as a result.
What the industry is seeing more and more these days are busy offices and factories passing all PAT testing each and every year. This is highly unlikely to be a true result of your company’s PAT testing report. If you own a busy office or factory and your PAT testing is not returning any faults at all, you should possibly look at contracting a new supplier for the PAT testing service.
This is an area where corners should most definitely not be cut for saving a few pence here and there.
DID YOU KNOW – failing to test and find faulty electrical equipment contributes 24% of the thousands of electrical fires in non-residential buildings every year. Also approximately 1,000 accidents a year come from electric shocks and burns.
Most of which could be avoided with PAT testing regularly with a competent supplier.
An additional benefit to outsourcing PAT testing and most of your compliance cover is that most of the time with the right supplier it will be cheaper than employing a full time onsite maintenance team.
Absolute Property Services offer qualified and competent engineers that can PAT for your business at very competitive rates on a national wide basis. Why not take advantage of our walk-in PAT testing service for your mobile equipment if you’re on the move.
For more information please call 01733 375900 or email sales@absolutepsg.co.uk