NICEIC Approved Contractor
There is no licence required to work as an electrician in the United Kingdom. Anyone can buy a van and print a logo. Registration is the only practical way for a customer to check that someone's work has been independently examined.
NICEIC is the largest of the UK electrical competent person schemes. Registration is not a certificate you buy once and frame. It is an annual assessment, and it can be withdrawn.
Each year an assessor:
If the work does not meet the standard, registration is suspended or removed. That is the whole point of it. An outside party with no commercial interest in us looks at what we actually built, not at what we say about ourselves.
The honest answer is that registration does not guarantee perfection. What it does is remove the worst outcomes, and give you a route when something is wrong.
An NICEIC inspector visits completed work, reads the test results and checks the instruments.
Part P notifications lodged with your local building control, not left on your desk.
A complaints and warranty route that does not depend on us agreeing to cooperate.
Never rely on a logo alone, on a van, a website or a quotation. Images can be copied by anyone. The register is the only thing that proves it, and searching it takes about thirty seconds.
Documentation
Different work produces different documents. If you have had electrical work done and received nothing at all, that is a problem worth chasing.
| Document | When it is issued | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical Installation Certificate | New installations, and any new circuit. A rewire or consumer unit change always produces one. | The design, construction, inspection and testing of the new work, with full schedules of test results for every circuit. |
| Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate | Additions and alterations that do not involve a new circuit: an extra socket, a light moved, an accessory replaced. | What was altered, the tests carried out on the affected circuit, and confirmation that the change has not made anything worse. |
| Electrical Installation Condition Report | Periodic inspection of an existing installation. Required for rented property at least every five years. | The condition of the whole installation, coded observations, and whether it is satisfactory for continued use. |
| Building Regulations compliance certificate | Notifiable work in a dwelling in England, issued after we notify your local authority through the scheme. | That the work was notified and complies with Part P. This is the one a buyer's solicitor asks for. |
Building Regulations
Part P covers electrical safety in dwellings in England. It has applied since 2005, and the notification requirements were narrowed in 2013. That is why a lot of out-of-date advice is still circulating.
These must be notified to building control:
We self-certify all of these under our registration and notify your local authority for you. You receive the compliance certificate, normally within a few weeks, and the local authority records it against the property.
These do not need notification, but still need doing correctly:
Not notifiable does not mean uncertified. This work still has to comply with BS 7671 and should still produce a Minor Works Certificate. Anyone telling you a job is too small for paperwork is telling you something about themselves.
It happens, usually discovered during a sale. The route back is a regularisation application to your local authority building control, who will want the installation inspected and tested before they certify it. We carry out that inspection regularly. It costs more than doing it properly first time, and it is fixable.
On file
Competent person scheme member, able to self-certify notifiable work in dwellings.
Public liability insurance is held for all work carried out. A copy of the certificate is available on request.
The Electrician London Ltd, a limited company based in Wallington, Surrey.
Common questions
NICEIC assess registered contractors regularly. An assessor inspects completed work on site, reviews test results and certificates, checks calibration records for test instruments, and confirms technical competence against BS 7671. Registration can be withdrawn if standards are not met, so it is an ongoing check rather than a one-off qualification.
Use the free contractor search on niceic.com and search by company name or postcode. Do not rely on a logo on a van or a website, because anyone can copy an image. The register is the only thing that proves it, it costs nothing to search, and it takes about thirty seconds.
Part P of the Building Regulations covers electrical safety in homes in England. Notifiable work includes installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, and any addition or alteration in a room containing a bath or shower. Notifiable work must either be self-certified by a registered installer or notified to building control in advance, and the second route costs considerably more.
It depends on the work. A new circuit or a consumer unit change produces an Electrical Installation Certificate with full schedules of test results. An addition or alteration to an existing circuit produces a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate. A periodic inspection produces an Electrical Installation Condition Report. Notifiable work in a home also produces a Building Regulations compliance certificate.
Registration applies across everything we do, domestic and commercial alike.
Get in touch
If you have inherited work with no paperwork, been given a report you do not understand, or been told something needs replacing and you are not sure, call and ask. We do not charge for an opinion.