Pat Testing

[STAR-Events 0]

Is it a legal requirement to have equipment PAT tested or is it optional?

 

 

[Jimbo55 0]

PAT testing itself is not a legal requirement..BUT

 

You are required under health and safety laws and your PLI insurance to ensure the safe working of your equipment and PAT is the easy way of doing that. Increasingly more venues are asking for a PAT cert

 

If you do not have it you can be refused entry to a venue. Your insurance may be void in the event of a claim.

 

Regulation 3(1b) of The Management of Health and Safety at Work

Regulations 1992 states:

 

"Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient

assessment of: the risks to the health and safety of persons

not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the

conduct by him or his undertaking"

 

Regulation 3 of the Electricity at Work Regulations states:

"It shall be the duty of every employer and self-employed

person to comply with the provisions of these Regulations in so

far as they relate to matters within his control."

 

Regulation 4(2) of the Electricity at Work Regulations states:

"As may be necessary to prevent danger, all [electrical]

systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is

reasonably practicable, such danger."

[Dream Catchers 0]

If you do not have it you can be refused entry to a venue.

 

I would check on that.

I would imagine that if you turned up to do a wedding half way across the country at 7.30pm on a saturday night and the manager refused to let you set up, the B&G would sue the backside off him.

PAT isn't a LEGAL requirement and neither is carrying the certs, your equipment may also be brand new and not have certs.

Also bear in mind that the absence of certs does not meen it is unsafe.

 

Jim

 

[TonyB 0]

PAT is not a legal requirement but doing a risk assessment is. For more info, have a look at the HSE guidelines http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf.

 

PAT testing of electrical equipment should form part of your overall risk assessment.

 

I've been reading through the HSE info and statistically more accidents happen in the entertainments industry through people tripping/falling e.g. from chairs, down stairs and from items falling on people e.g. from shelves/apparatus than get injured by faulty electrical equipment.

 

The Law requires that you do a risk assessment to identify ALL risks associated with the work you do, not just electrical equipment.

 

A few items that you should take into consideration are:

 

Preventing trip hazards by keeping cables tidy and where there is a risk of someone tripping over a cable, tape it down with suitable tape.

 

Ensure that lighting/speaker stands are set up in such a way that there is minimal danger of someone tripping over a protruding leg.

 

Using safety chains on lights.

 

Regular visual checks of electrical apparatus and combined visual/testing of earthed electrical items (PAT fulfills the requirement for testing)

 

If you have a winch up lighting stand, the winch should be inspected in accordance with the LOLER 1998 regs.

 

With regards to not being allowed access to a premises if your equipment is not PAT tested, according to the HSE, it is not the responsibility of the premises/owners to ensure that items brought on their premises are PAT tested. It says "The law is restricted to matters within your control" but if as part of their own risk assessment, they have decided to ensure that all electrical equipment is PAT tested then they have the right to refuse to allow you to use untested equipment on their premises.

 

I think the DJ associations should be shifting their focus from just PAT and start helping their members to be legally compliant by doing full risk assessments.

[norty303 0]

Using safety chains on lights.

 

You should use an appropriately rated secondary fixing. As most of the clips used on chains are not rated its now considered that chains are not a suitable (although thats not to say that they won't do the job, or be used by a lot of people/companies)

 

In short, if you're buying new, buy bonds rather than chains.

[STAR-Events 0]

Cheers for that guys.

 

 

[Steve_Mitchell 0]

For the small cost it gives you piece of mind that your gear i s working well and potentially won`t let you down during use.

[Dream Catchers 0]

I think there was nother thread where somebody found that their Citronic mixer had the internal earth disconnected when they tested it.

This was only shown up due to the PAT, it had been without the earth since new.

 

Jim