Changes to the Electrical Safety Act 2002
A number of significant amendments recently made to the Electrical Safety Act 2002(the Act) will come into force in early 2008.
Amendments to the Act include:
- making employers and self-employed people responsible for keeping a register of licensed workers and ensuring that workers are appropriately licensed
- licence holders engaged to perform or supervise electrical work must notify the employer or selfemployed person of any changes to the status of their licence
- an increase in the range of disciplinary actions available to the Licensing Committee for holders of work licences and to holders of electrical contractor licences that have expired
- clarifying options for inspectors to seize electrical equipment that causes or has the potential to cause an electrical risk, as well as provisions for the forfeiture and the return of unsafe electrical equipment
- confidentiality of information acquired, and authority to release information to another electrical safety enforcement agency on request
- a regulation-making power to introduce a requirement for signs or other advertising material for the hiring or sale of electrical equipment.
The Bill was passed by Parliament on 30 October 2007.
All changes come into effect from 1 January 2008, except for the register of licensed workers and the confidentiality of information provisions, which will commence from 1 March 2008.
Read more on the changes to the electrical safety act.