Quote:Your mate can walk off the street and do the part P course and then work in domestic properties...
I wish people would stop spreading this particular strand of misinformation.
1. There is no such thing as a Part P Course, no such thing as a Part P Qualification, no such thing as a Part P Electrician. (Whatever the marketing suggests.)
2. The principal requirements of Part P of the Building Regulations are stated in a single sentence, which requires 'reasonable provision' to be made for safety in domestic installations.
3. The most regular way of making this reasonable provision is held to be compliance with BS 7671, The IEE Wiring Regulations.
4. BS 7671 requires "Good workmanship by competent persons..." (Reg 134.1.1)
5. A 'competent person' is somebody with "...sufficient technical knowledge, relevant practical skills and experience for the nature of the work undertaken..."
ANYBODY with such competence, which includes the correct compilation of relevant certification, could satisfy the legal requirements of the Building Regulations, regardless of where or how they had acquired that competence.
And just for good measure - there are plenty of 'fully-qualified' electricians who would be judged incompetent by those criteria and plenty of non-electricians who could very easily acquire the necessary competence.
(Registration with a government-endorsed 'competent persons scheme' is another discussion altogether.)