The Electrical Safety Roundtable (ESR) hosted the fringe event Electrical Safety: Why Regulations Matter at both the Labour Conference in Brighton and the Conservative Conference in Manchester during September.

The panel included politicians, such as Roberta Blackman-Woods, Shadow Communities and Local Government Minister and Peter Aldous MP, as well as representatives from NAPIT, the LABC, the Chief Fire Officers Association and the IET, all present to discuss key issues affecting electrical safety in the home.

The issues raised included concerns over the dilution of Part P of the Building Regulations, the importance of individual competence and the possible ways of improving Building Regulation enforcement. Consensus on the importance of raising consumer awareness about electrical safety in the home and the need for industry collaboration to help achieve this was evident throughout both events and the ESR was congratulated on its activities to help realise this.

Chairman of the Electrical Safety Roundtable, Chris Bielby, said: We are pleased with how well the events have been received and, in particular, Roberta Blackman-Woods’ interest in reviewing the dilution of Part P. We got our key messages out to a number of influential stakeholders at the party conferences and successfully raised awareness of the important issues surrounding electrical safety in the home.

Effective regulation is of central importance to the electrical industry. These fringe events were an ideal opportunity for us to ensure MPs hear an industry perspective on the fine balance of risk and responsibility involved in regulatory change.

NAPITʼs Chief Operating Officer, Martin Bruno, said: It was an honour to sit on the panel of the Electrical Safety Roundtable fringe events at this yearʼs party conferences. It proved a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of issues surrounding electrical safety in the home and to highlight NAPITʼs views on topics such as individual competence. I hope this will be one of many opportunities to continue to bang the drum for policy changes which will make our industry safer.