PAT Service 2023/24
The 2024/25 PAT programme runs from September 2024 – August 2025 and if you have signed up for our PAT programme, you can see on our website both the dates your hall is due to be tested in this year and the date your hall was tested last year.
Please can you check the dates for your hall and make sure that your PAT contact info is correct, so that the volunteer testers can contact you and arrange specific dates to conduct the tests. If there are any changes to your committee or to the contact we have listed for your PAT needs, please email Austin to confirm any changes.
A number of halls contacted us following COVID ‘lockdown’ period because they were concerned about having a gap of well over a year in the testing process, and we absolutely understand our members’ concerns. However, you may be reassured to know that it is a myth that all portable electrical appliances in a ‘low-risk’ environment (e.g.: offices and village halls, etc.) legally need to have a portable appliance test (PAT) every year. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition (in order to prevent danger). The Regulations, however, do not specify what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently (they don’t make inspection or testing of electrical appliances a legal requirement, nor do they make it a legal requirement to undertake this annually). That said, it is both sensible and good practice to have your equipment tested every year to make sure safety standards are as good as they can be and that any risk to the hall and to any of its users is minimised.
You may occasionally receive enquiries from your insurers – some of whom prefer testing to be carried out annually as part of their requirements for continuing cover. Should you have any questions from your insurers, you will need to confirm the dates of when your usual annual testing was last carried out, that you maintain records/certificates and the rough date you expect your next test to be completed (and/or that you will inform them as soon as the latest test has been carried out).
There is a publication from the government that sets out all the conditions/legal requirements in the following link: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg236.pdf (Maintaining Portable Electric Equipment in Low Risk Environments).
In the meantime, please email Austin if you have any queries.