Part P and the competent person schemes: NICEIC, NAPIT, and self-certifying your own work

You put in a new circuit for a garden office, tested it, and handed over a BS 7671 electrical installation certificate. Three weeks later the customer's solicitor asks for the building regulations compliance certificate, and there isn't one, because you are not registered with a scheme and nobody told building control the work was happening.

That is Part P. It does not decide who is allowed to hold the screwdriver. It decides who is allowed to sign off the job, and the two things get confused constantly.

This page is the work that is notifiable, the three ways to certify it, what a scheme assessment actually consists of, what each scheme costs in 2026, and what changes on 1 October 2026.

What Part P actually gates

Requirement P1 of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010 is one sentence: "Reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury."

The limits on application are wider than most people assume. P1 covers low and extra-low voltage installations in or attached to a dwelling, in the common parts of a building serving one or more dwellings (though not the power supply to lifts), in a building fed from a source inside or shared with a dwelling, and in a garden or on land where the electricity comes from a source inside or shared with a dwelling.

Approved Document P works that through to the practical cases. Part P applies to fixed lighting and air conditioning units on outside walls, photovoltaic panels on roofs, pond pumps in gardens, sheds, detached garages and domestic greenhouses. It applies in the corridors and stairs of blocks of flats, in shared laundries and gymnasiums, and in a shop or pub below flats that shares a meter with them. It does not apply to business premises in the same building on a separate meter.

Every bit of electrical work in a dwelling has to meet P1. Only some of it has to be certified as meeting P1, and that smaller list is what the whole notification machine runs on.

Notifiable work in England: three items, and nothing else

Regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 is short. You must give a building notice or an application for building control approval with full plans where the work consists of:

Everything else in a dwelling is non-notifiable: additions and alterations to existing circuits outside a special location, and replacements, repairs and maintenance anywhere. That is Approved Document P paragraph 2.7, in as many words.

A special location is defined in regulation 12(9) and it is a measured volume, not a room:

• Within a room containing a bath or shower, the space around a bath tap or shower head, running vertically from finished floor level to 2.25 metres, or to the shower head where that is fixed higher than 2.25 metres.
• Horizontally, 0.6 metres from the edge of the bath tub or shower tray. Where there is no tub or tray, 1.2 metres from the centre point of the shower head where it is fixed to the wall or ceiling.
• A room containing a swimming pool or a sauna heater.

So a shaver socket 900 mm from the edge of the bath, added to an existing circuit, is not notifiable. The same socket 400 mm from the edge is. This is the single most useful thing to have straight in your head on a domestic job, because it is the difference between a job you can finish today and a job that needs a certificate route decided before you start.

Two worked cases from Approved Document P 2.8, which settle most arguments on site. Installing a built-in cooker is not notifiable unless it needs a new cooker circuit. Connecting an electric gate to an existing isolator is not notifiable, but running a new circuit from the consumer unit to that isolator is. Prefabricated modular wiring for kitchen lighting, linked by plug and socket connectors, is inside the scope of Part P but is only notifiable if it involves one of the three items.

The 2013 edition of Approved Document P is what did this. Before 6 April 2013, work in kitchens and outdoors was notifiable in England too. It is not now.

Wales kept the old rules, and that is the trap

Building regulations powers passed to the Welsh Ministers on 31 December 2011, and Part P is where the split bites hardest. The Approved Documents issued for England from 6 April 2013, Part P among them, apply in England only, so none of the 2013 changes reached Wales. Regulation 12(6A) does not apply in Wales at all. Neither does the third-party certifier route, which was removed for Wales on 8 June 2018.

In Wales the logic is inverted. Notifiable electrical work is everything except what Schedule 4 lets out, and the Welsh version of Schedule 4 is the pre-2013 list:

The two conditions attached to that Schedule 4 paragraph 2 line are the ones that catch English firms working over the border. The work must not be in a kitchen or a special location, and must not involve a special installation. A kitchen in Wales means a room or part of a room containing a sink and food preparation facilities. A special installation means electric floor or ceiling heating, an outdoor lighting or electric power installation, an electricity generator, or an extra-low voltage lighting system that is not a pre-assembled CE-marked set.

Put plainly: adding a socket to a ring in a Cardiff kitchen is notifiable. The identical work in a Bristol kitchen is not. Garden power in Wales is notifiable, because outdoor power is a special installation there.

The three routes to compliance

Approved Document P section 3 gives three procedures for notifiable work. All three end in the same document, a building regulations compliance certificate, and they differ in who produces it and how long each step takes.

Three things about those three routes are worth more than the routes themselves.

Third-party certification exists in England and has exactly one operator. Schedule 3A to the Building Regulations names the person who may inspect electrical installations in dwellings, and that entry now reads NAPIT Registration Limited. Stroma Certification Limited was struck from it, and from the self-certification list in Schedule 3, by SI 2021/1391, with effect from 15 June 2022. The route is also unforgiving on timing: the certifier has to be appointed before the work starts, so it is a plan, not a rescue.

The building control charge is not fixed and it is not out of your hands. Approved Document P 3.11 says that a local authority setting its charge is required to take account of the amount of inspection work it thinks it will need to do. Paragraph 3.10 says an installer competent to inspect and test should give the appropriate BS 7671 certificate to the building control body, which then takes that certificate and your qualifications into account. Turning up with a completed certificate and your Level 3 qualifications is worth money on that invoice.

Nothing self-heals afterwards. If notifiable work was done and never notified, the owner's route is a regularisation certificate under regulation 18, which applies to unauthorised work carried out on or after 11 November 1985 and puts the authority in charge of deciding what has to be opened up, tested and remedied. Since the Building Safety Act 2022 rewrote section 35 of the Building Act 1984, contravening building regulations carries a fine and up to two years' imprisonment on indictment, plus a further daily fine while the default continues, and a section 36 notice requiring work to be pulled down or altered can now be served up to 10 years after completion rather than 12 months. Those changes took effect in England on 1 October 2023 and in Wales on 1 July 2026.

What a scheme assessment actually consists of

Every scheme in the country assesses you against the same document: the Electrotechnical Assessment Specification, written by a management committee that includes the scheme operators, the ECA, SELECT, the JIB, City & Guilds, the HSE, UKAS, Electrical Safety First, MHCLG and the Welsh Government. The IET hosts it and publishes it free.

An electrician preparing for his firm's first NAPIT assessment on the Screwfix Community forum was told by another registered contractor that "the paperwork is just a tick box exercise", and that the real questions come on site, where you are asked to perform tests and explain what results you expect. That is an accurate description of how the EAS is built.

The people. The enterprise appoints a Principal Duty Holder and, for each contracting office, at least one Qualified Supervisor. One person can be both, and a sole trader routinely is. A proposed Qualified Supervisor needs at least two years' evidence of responsibility for the technical standard of electrotechnical work, plus evidence of ongoing CPD, and must hold an appropriate BS 7671 qualification within two years of a change to BS 7671 taking effect. That clause has a live deadline attached to it: BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 was published on 15 April 2026 and the previous version is withdrawn on 15 October 2026.

The instruments. The minimum kit for low voltage work is set out in EAS Appendix 3: insulation resistance, continuity, a voltage indicator with a means of securing safe isolation, earth fault loop impedance, an RCD tester, and suitable split test leads for the loop and RCD instruments. Functions may be combined in one instrument.

Calibration, which is where firms lose marks. The requirement is a system that demonstrates ongoing accuracy and consistency, and the EAS offers three ways to satisfy it: formal calibration to the manufacturer's recommendation with certificates traceable to national standards, UKAS-accredited certificates being preferred; recorded comparative cross-checks between your own instruments over time; or recorded measurements against designated reference circuits or devices, such as a proprietary resistance box, a designated non-RCD socket outlet in your office for loop testing, and a plug-in RCD unit on that socket for the RCD tester. Voltage indicating equipment does not require calibration.

The visit. You make available work completed normally within the last 12 months, or in progress, and the assessor picks from it at random. You demonstrate safe electrical isolation. The assessor gets access to the contracting office to look at equipment, documents and business systems. The Qualified Supervisor has to be present throughout, and the Principal Duty Holder available to discuss the outcome. Non-conformities come back in a written report with a completion time not exceeding three months.

The paperwork you must be able to produce. Six years of certificates and reports, six years of complaints and what you did about them, records showing every employed person is competent or adequately supervised, records of qualifications, training and CPD, evidence of insurance, and a written health and safety policy statement with risk assessments.

Insurance. At least £2 million public liability covering the work being assessed, and at least £250,000 professional indemnity if your scope includes periodic inspection and testing. Getting those limits right before the assessor arrives is the cheapest preparation there is, and what public and employers' liability actually cost sets out where those numbers come from.

Afterwards. Surveillance visits are normally annual, though a scheme may vary the interval on a risk assessment, and the interval can never exceed three years. If a Qualified Supervisor leaves, you notify the scheme within 30 days and must have an assessed replacement in place within 120 days.

The schemes, and where the names went

Five operators are authorised by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to run a competent person scheme covering fixed electrical installations in dwellings: BESCA, Blue Flame Certification, Certsure LLP trading as NICEIC, NAPIT Registration, and OFTEC. A separate, shorter list covers firms doing electrical work only as an adjunct to their main trade, which is how plumbers and heating engineers notify the electrics that come with a boiler.

Two names people still search for are no longer choices. ELECSA's registrations moved into NICEIC, and elecsa.co.uk now serves NICEIC's own site. Stroma Certification was removed from both Schedule 3 and Schedule 3A in June 2022 and is not on the authorised list.

The choice between the two big names comes down to what work you take. If everything you do is domestic, the Domestic Installer scheme is £590 a year cheaper than Approved Contractor in year one and buys the identical Part P self-certification right. If you also do commercial and industrial work, or you want the Approved Contractor mark on tenders, the higher fee is buying something real, and it is also the prerequisite for certifying work in Scotland.

1 October 2026: what changes about company competence

The EAS revision published in October 2024 applies in full from 1 October 2026, and it moves the question from what the business can demonstrate to what each individual holds.

The specification now recognises six work categories, each split between dwellings and other than dwellings: A1 electrical installation up to 1000 V AC or 1500 V DC, A2 periodic inspection and testing, A3 electric vehicle charging equipment, A4 solar photovoltaic systems, A5 electric energy storage systems, and A6 micro wind turbines. The last four are new, and they carry qualification requirements that fall on all employed persons, not just the Qualified Supervisor. Employed persons is defined broadly: directly employed staff, temporary and agency workers, and subcontracted labour including self-employed individuals and sole traders.

Periodic inspection and testing. Anyone carrying out work in category A2 needs at least two years' evidence of doing periodic inspection and testing, an approved Level 3 qualification such as City & Guilds 2391-51 or 2391-52 or an equivalent listed in the EAS Qualifications Guide, and evidence of ongoing CPD. Trainees and apprentices can continue to gain experience under close supervision.

The low-carbon categories. Each brings a Level 3 qualification, a code of practice and additional test instruments.

An earth fault loop impedance tester may be used to meet the earth electrode testing requirement under BS 7671 regulation 643.7.2, which saves buying one instrument.

The practical version, for a two-van firm doing rewires, EICRs and the odd EV point: by 1 October 2026 the person doing the EICRs needs 2391 or its equivalent and a CPD record, and the person fitting chargers needs the Level 3 EV qualification, even if that person is a subcontractor you use twice a month. If the qualification is the gap rather than the experience, the assessment-only routes to a Level 3 are covered in getting an NVQ without an apprenticeship.

Both NICEIC and NAPIT are handling this at your next assessment rather than by suspension: the assessor asks which categories you intend to work in, you show how you meet the requirement, and where you cannot, an action plan is recorded in the assessment report.

Scotland and Northern Ireland run on different machinery

Part P is a part of the Building Regulations 2010, which apply in England and Wales. It has no force in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and paying an English scheme fee for the right to self-certify does not buy anything north of the border by itself.

Scotland works through the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and a building warrant. Electrical requirements sit in standard 4.5, electrical safety, which applies to all buildings, and standard 4.6, electrical fixtures, which applies to domestic buildings only. Both cite BS 7671, so the installation standard is the same one you already work to.

What replaces self-certification is the Scheme for Certification of Construction (Electrical Installations to BS 7671), approved by Scottish Ministers. An individual registers as an Approved Certifier of Construction, and must be eligible for a Scottish Joint Industry Board Approved Electrician Grade Card and be a principal or full-time employee of an Approved Body. They need an assessment in the Scottish technical handbooks passed within the previous three years, a Level 3 Certificate in the Requirements for Electrical Installations to BS 7671 within the previous five years or an SJIB-acceptable assessed course, and an assessed EV charging equipment course within the last five years.

The Approved Body is the firm. It must have been trading in electrotechnical work for at least six months, employ at least one Approved Certifier, appoint a Certification Co-ordinator to counter-sign every certificate, and keep records for five years. A sole trader may be the Approved Body, the Approved Certifier and the Certification Co-ordinator at once.

The payoff is concrete. The local authority verifier must accept a valid certificate of construction as the record of compliance, so the installation needs no separate check, and the warrant fee is reduced. With NICEIC, the Scottish scheme requires Approved Contractor registration first, adds no fee where the business is based in Scotland, and each certificate of construction costs £1 plus VAT.

Northern Ireland has no equivalent at all. The Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 run from Part A to Part V and none of them is electrical safety. Part P there is sanitary appliances, unvented hot water storage systems and reducing the risk of scalding, which is why searching "Part P Northern Ireland" returns a different subject entirely. Electrical work in a Northern Irish dwelling is still governed by BS 7671 through contract and by the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 where people are at work, and there is no self-certification scheme to join for it.

One consumer unit change, three ways

A domestic board swap in Leeds. The work is notifiable under regulation 12(6A)(b), whoever does it.

The arithmetic decides itself on volume. Registration is a fixed annual cost of £834 in year one and £714 thereafter, and every notification after that costs £4.80. Twenty notifiable jobs a year on the Domestic Installer scheme works out at £46.50 a job in year one and £40.50 a job after it. Two notifiable jobs a year works out at £421.80 a job, and at that rate the third-party certifier or the council is the cheaper answer, as long as you remember that both of them have to be arranged before the first cable is pulled.

What it costs

The scheme fees are what they are, and none of them go to AEC Stack. What we charge is nothing per month. There is no subscription. The platform fee is 2.5% of each invoice processed through AEC Stack, taken when the invoice is paid, so a quiet January costs you nothing.

What that buys on the Part P side is that the certificate trail lives with the job instead of in a glovebox. Your quotes and invoices carry the notifiable work flagged as notifiable, the compliance certificate reference sits against the job it belongs to, and the 30-day clock from completion is counted for you rather than discovered in a paperwork review a year later. Your Qualified Supervisor's BS 7671 qualification date, your calibration records and your public liability renewal sit in one place, which is the same list the assessor asks for.

Put your next notifiable job in, price the two routes side by side with your real scheme fee and your real notification count, and see which way round it comes out: start here.