2.6 - Standards

Every item of equipment which forms part of an electrical installation must be designed and manufactured so that it will be safe to use. To this end all equipment should, wherever possible, comply with the relevant British Standard; a list of the standards applying to electrical installations is included in the Regulations as [Appendix Ii. Increasingly we are meeting equipment which has been produced to the standards of another country. It is the responsibility of the designer to check that such a standard does not differ from the British Standard to such an extent that safety would be reduced. If the electrician is also the designer, and this may well happen in some cases, the electrician carries this responsibility.

Foreign standards may well be acceptable, but it is the responsibility of the designer to ensure that this is so. In the event of equipment not complying with the BS concerned, it is the responsibility of the installer to ensure that it provides the same degree of safety as that established by compliance with the Regulations.

A harmonised documant (HD) is one agreed by all member nations of CENELEC. These documents may be published in individual countries with additions (BS 7671 is one such) but not with deletions. BS EN documents are Standards agreed by all CENELEC members and published without additions or deletions. Such EN standards supersede the original British Standard.

An increasing number of electrical contractors are registered as having satisfied the British Standards Institution that they comply fully with BS 5750 - Quality Assurance~ This standard is not concerned directly with the Wiring Regulations, but since compliance with them is an important part of the organisation's assurance that its work is of the highest quality, registration under BS 5750 implies that the Wiring Regulations are followed totally.