A steadily mounting campaign to ensure that every genuine electrician in Scotland is recognised as a regulated professional is being led by SELECT, the trade association for the electrical contracting industry in Scotland.
SELECT wants everyone who calls themselves an electrician to hold appropriate qualifications to help safeguard the public.
Amongst qualified electricians the consensus is that regulation is a must. Susan Curatolo, who works with her father and two other electricians for NAC Electrics in Biggar, is firmly behind SELECT and its campaign for regulation.
“Absolutely,” she said. “There are individuals out there who are taking money from properly qualified electricians. It should be like a driving licence – you wouldn’t drive a car without a licence and you shouldn’t touch electrical systems without being qualified.
“Regulation is the only way forward and SELECT should have the support of the whole country behind it.”
Another, Scott McLean, in Stirling, who qualified as an electrician, launched his own business shortly afterwards and now, 25 years later has 10 electricians working for him, firmly supports the campaign. “Through and through,” he said.
“Right now, you can call yourself an electrician without any qualifications whatsoever and that can’t be right. Now is the time for the Scottish government to take action.”
SELECT Managing Director Newell McGuiness, said: “Electricity is vital to every aspect of modern life and it’s frightening to think of the number of unqualified people out there who are carrying out dangerous work on a daily basis”.
Newell himself is aware of one person who advertises in a local newspaper as an electrician: “I know exactly what this man does and he certainly isn’t an electrician.”
SELECT’s push for regulation is no soft option – it wants to see statutory – Protection of Title to make it a criminal offence for anyone to call themselves an electrician if they are not qualified.
“It’s a matter of public safety” said Newell, “You simply cannot be comfortable with the current position where an unqualified individual can turn up at your door and then start tinkering with your electrical system.
“Sad to say, but poor work often leads to fires and they have terrible consequences – life changing or ending – and that is why, to ensure the safety of the general public in Scotland, we have to regulate the electrical industry and introduce Protection of Title for electricians at the earliest opportunity”.
For more information please contact Alan Wilson, Head of Membership and Communications at SELECT, the Electrical Contractors’ Association of Scotland, The Walled Garden, Bush Estate, Midlothian, EH26 0SB. T: 0131 445 5577. F: 0131 445 5548. E: admin@select.org.uk. W: www.select.org.uk
