Answer

With regards to the inspection of the mains circuits in the building, this should be inspected by a qualified electrician at least every 5 years.

This ensures compliance with the The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 which enhanced the then current Factory Act and Office, Shops and Railway Premises Act.

Your District Council may even still be prepared to carry out the inspection if you have the right contacts, otherwise you'll have to engage a competent qualified electrician. The Health & Safety Executive tell us that"...the best way to find out if your electrical installation is safe is to have it inspected and tested by a person who has the competence to do so, such as an Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC), or The Electrical Contractors' Association of Scotland (SELECT) approved electrical contractor. These can be found in the Yellow Pages" (HSE website 28/11/2007)

With regards to portable appliances, these should be subject to an annual inspection or PAT (Portable Appliance Test). The regulations do not insist that a qualified electrician has to perform these checks, just that they need to be done by a 'competent person'. However, to reduce your exposure to liability it might be prudent to ask a qualified electrician with access to approriate equipment to perform the tests even though it is not a strict legal requirement for you to do so.

Your general H&S risk assessment should supplement these inspections by ensuring other visual checks and behaviour checks, such as looking out for frayed cables, signs of scorching, continuous use of high-current equipment, multiple appliances plugged into sockets, use of electrical equipment in wet areas, and so on.

In a low risk office or village hall environment, if you apply the above and then add the same common sense that you would use in your own home to protect your family, you won't go far wrong.

If there is non-standard equipment in place in the hall such as stage lighting and rheostats, lift machinery, 415volt supplies, etc, you should ensure the checks are done by someone with the relevant specialist experience and who understands any additional regulations that apply.

From information supplied by D Head