Safe isolation, live work and permits — Industrial Electrical Practice

Sample questions

1. 01Which of these would count as injury under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989?

   • AA strained back from lifting a motor onto its baseplate
   • BBurns from an arc when a spanner falls across busbars
   • CA crushed finger caught in a conveyor’s moving belt
   • DA cut hand from the sharp edge of a steel cable tray

   Why: Injury under the Regulations means death or personal injury from electric shock, electric burn, arcing or electrical explosion, or from a fire or explosion started by electrical energy. An arc from a dropped spanner is exactly that. The conveyor injury is tempting because it happens on electrically driven plant, but it is a mechanical injury, as are the strain and the cut.

2. 02A client’s engineer tells you to take the cover off a live panel to save time, and says he takes responsibility. What is your position under the Electricity at Work Regulations?

   • AYou have no duty, as only employers carry duties
   • BYou are covered once he puts the instruction in writing
   • CHis instruction moves the duty for the work onto him
   • DYou keep your own duty for matters in your control

   Why: Regulation 3 places duties on every employee to co-operate with the employer and to comply with the Regulations for matters within their own control. The engineer has duties of his own, but his instruction, written or not, does not lift yours. The idea that only employers carry duties is wrong: employees and the self-employed carry them too.

3. 03Regulation 4(2) requires systems to be maintained to prevent danger, so far as is reasonably practicable. When can a dutyholder stop short of a precaution?

   • AWhenever the site risk assessment rates the risk as low
   • BWhenever the job is due to be finished within the hour
   • CWhenever the precaution would cause any loss of production time
   • DOnly where its cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk

   Why: Reasonably practicable means weighing the risk against the money, time or trouble of controlling it, and a measure can only be left out where its cost would be grossly disproportionate to the risk. A low rating on a risk assessment or a short job does not change the test, which compares the cost with the risk. HSE adds that for electrical risks, where the result is often death, the duty comes close to absolute.