What you need to know about PAT Testing
Pat Testing (also known as Portable Appliance Testing) is a way of checking your electrical equipment to see if it is SAFE.
PAT Testing is an important part of your organisation’s Health and Safety regime. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small business or a large multi-site corporation; if you use electrical equipment in your business, then you have a responsibility to make sure it is safe.
Additionally many insurance companies insist that PAT Testing be carried out every 12 months (or less) in order to satisfy the conditions of their policy, and local council inspectors (Fire Officers, Health and Safety Officers) routinely ask for evidence of PAT Testing when they carry out their inspections.
We employ competent skilled and experienced engineers to test your equipment. We can test efficiently, quickly and with the minimum of disruption to your business.
To comply with UK workplace regulations for electrical safety you must maintain safe electrical equipment at all times; how you do this is up to you but the only recognised process is called inspection and testing of electrical equipment, otherwise known as portable appliance, or PAT testing.
This means that you need to get your electrical appliances PAT tested as often as is necessary to ensure your equipment maintains the safety standards. This is because the process of PAT testing confirms an appliance is safe or not; and includes remedial repairs by the test engineer to the plug to ensure the appliance is safe. In addition the results of all the tests have to be recorded, from which you will be provided with a document to confirm the status of each appliance, the test results and guidance on how to improve or continue to manage the safety standards.
How often you need to get equipment tested is a big area for discussion and there is more information on our PAT testing frequency page, but all you need to do is book us to do your inspections, during which we will assess the risks and recommend retest periods for the equipment you have. This could mean all appliances are tested on a particular retest period, or different types of appliances are tested at different times. For example in an office your stationery desk top computers won’t need testing as often as your laptops that are taken home.
We recommend at this point you contact us to discuss your situation, or to get a quote for us to do your testing. The rest of the information on this page is going into more detail; it is information which may or may not be of interest to you but it is not essential for booking an appointment.
