Assessment Overview

By joining a self-certification body such as ELECSA, you will be making Part P hassle free, and leaving you free to get on with running your business.

The Basics

The ELECSA Information Pack explains the scheme in greater detail and is available to download here.

ELECSA operates two levels of self-certification scheme. The one you choose will depend on which one best suits your needs:

• Full Scope (Level A) – ideal for fully qualified electricians whose main business is electrical installation work. Allows certification of all types of domestic work.
• Defined Scope (Level B) – best suited to those businesses that do some electrical work in the course of their main business (i.e. kitchen/bathroom fitters, builders, gas fitters, plumbers etc). You will only be assessed in the areas of electrical work you typically undertake and will only be able to certify work that you have been assessed against.

The cost to join ELECSA is £390.00 + VAT which includes your registration fee and the on-site assessment. If you choose to apply online, it is only £350 + VAT to join ELECSA. On renewal the fee is £350 + VAT which covers the re-assessment visit and the renewal fee.

The application process is straightforward: complete an application form online, or you can print the application form to complete it and post it to us. Once we have your application form, we will allocate an assessment date (typically within 4 weeks).

It is a requirement of all competent persons schemes to provide a warranty provision for customers of approved contractors. ELECSA has a facility set up with the Electrical Contractors’ Insurance Company (ECIC) and is provided at no additional cost to the contractor. To provide this facility to your customers, all you need to do is agree to the terms and conditions of the warranty provision and provide your customer with an ECIC leaflet, which you will receive electronically once you have agreed to the warranty provision.

On the day of your assessment, the assessor will meet you at your place of business. The assessor is looking to make a judgement on your knowledge of BS7671 and your competence in working to this standard. In determining your ability to self certify, the assessor will check the following:

• Public liability insurance cover
• Electrical reference documents (BS7671, Electricity at Work, On site guide etc)
• Test instruments and calibration records
• Electrical installation certificates for work carried out
• Complaints procedure and log
• Guarantee Insurance provider (not required on the day of the assessment as details can be provided at a later date)
• Risk Assessment procedure
• Health & Safety requirements
• Site Visit

Further information about the detail of these requirements can be found here. We can provide guidance and help in all of these areas to help prepare you for the assessment. If you want to talk to anyone or have a specific question about the assessment, please call us on 0845 634 9043 and we will be happy to advise you.

We do offer a ‘coaching’ service where one of our assessors will come out and spend time with you to prepare you for an assessment (whether it’s with ELECSA or anyone else). It is chargeable and if you would like further information on this, please contact us on 0845 634 9043 for further information about this service.

Once you have passed the assessment, you can start self-certifying. Not every type of domestic work is notifiable. For quick checklist of the types of work that are notifiable, please click here. Once you have successfully passed your assessment, you will receive a welcome pack from us that details your username and password for the ELECSA website. These details will give you access to the easy to use job notification system.

The cost of notifying a job via the website is £1.50 + VAT per job. This includes the cost of notifying the job to the local authority and sending the certificate to the householder.

For you the contractor, we want to keep the administrative burden down to a minimum. You tell us the details of the job and where it was carried out. We notify the relevant building control department and issue the certificate to the householder. You can keep track of the jobs you’ve notified through the ELECSA website.

To find out why ELECSA is one of the fastest growing competent persons schemes, click here