The Management Health & Safety at Work Regulations (1999) state that every employer shall make suitable and sufficient assessment of: The risks to the health and safety of his employees and the risks to the health and safety of persons in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking. |
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Therefore in order to comply with this regulation, employers must understand the risk that they pose to their employees. To do this a risk analysis should be undertaken to identify and estimate the risks. Then Risk Management must be practiced to install procedures and practices to control the level of risk.
In relation to your companies electrical appliances, it is recommended that you keep a log of all appliances and their condition along with the risk that they pose. This can be done by carrying out a risk analysis.
Risk analysis should consider the following:
• Environment - surrounds and where the appliances are used
• The User - how do they use the equipment, how do they report damage.
• The Types of equipment and electrical appliances on site – are they Class I, Class II, hand held or fixed?
The IEE Code of practice recommends a regime of inspection and testing on all electrical appliances. This can be carried out either by an external pat testing company or in-house with your companies own trained staff using pat testing equipment. Each item should be labelled with a pass or fail sticker after testing.
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