Key legal responsibilities of electrical engineers
Posted by: electime 30th March 2020
Electrical engineering is a vitally important activity in economic terms. But if performed without the proper care and expertise, it’s also a potentially dangerous one. A safe item can be rendered unsafe if it’s modified in the wrong way, and new products must conform to a whole slew of standards designed to safeguard the welfare of the public.
So what are the main legal responsibilities that electrical engineers must abide by? Let’s take a look.
What does the law say?
The fourth of the of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989says that ‘all systems at all times [should] be of such construction as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, danger’. This wide-ranging statement can be looked at as a broad overview of your health-and-safety responsibilities as an engineer: everything you provide should be safe, or you leave yourself vulnerable to legal action.
The same set of regulations goes on to outline how electrical equipment that is made to be used in hazardous environments – which might range from a brief April shower to the inside of a steel mill – should be robust enough to repel those hazards. That means being able to withstand heat, water and corrosion without failing.
Of course, the possibility of an accident isn’t just the responsibility of the manufacturer, but of anyone looking to use the tools in question. No electric power-drill, after all, can be made completely fool-proof.
Another important piece of legislation to consider are the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016, which replaced those which came into force in 1994. While the old regulations were revoked in December 2016, they still apply to products which came to market before then – but for the most part, it’s the more recent law that we should be concerned with.
Specifically, we deal here with electrical equipment that operates between 50 and 1,000 volts in the case of alternating current, and 75 to 1,500 in the case of direct current. Both domestic and commercial items are covered.
Manufacturers are obliged to create safe items, and subject them to testing, and draw up technical documentation. This done, the manufacturer can create what’s called a declaration of conformity, and affix the CE marking to the product’s exterior. All of these documents must be kept available for a decade after the product first hits the market.
It should be noted that in the UK many failures on the part of the electrical engineer would be classed as professional negligence, which is mostly a matter of common rather than statutory law.
One aspect of manufacturing law that’s in a state of transition concerns the right to repair, which is due to be implemented across Europe in 2021. Under the proposed rules, companies would have to keep a stock of spare parts for items so that they can be repaired for up to ten years after their initial release. Any manufacturer wishing to sell to the continent, therefore, will need to comply with this responsibility.
For those looking to repair low-voltage DC equipment, like televisions, laptops and musical instruments, there’s no legal obligation to do anything – but if you fail to restore the item to working order, then you could be on the hook for a replacement.
