What is notifiable under Part P in England and Wales, the three routes to certifying it, which BS 7671 certificate goes with each job, and how Scotland and Northern Ireland differ.
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Written and reviewed by Andrew Moore, founder of Elec-Mate, against BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, IET Guidance Note 3 and the IET On-Site Guide.
The short answer
In England, regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 makes three things notifiable: installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to an existing circuit in a special location. All other domestic electrical work is not notifiable.
Wales still uses the wider pre-2013 list, in which kitchens, outdoor lighting and power, electric underfloor heating and solar PV are also notifiable. Notifiable work must be certified by a registered competent person, a registered third-party certifier, or a building control body.
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01 · Building Regulations Guide
In England the notifiable list is short, and it is set out in regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 — not in an approved document. Three things are notifiable:
Everything else is not notifiable. Approved Document P puts it plainly at paragraph 2.7: all other electrical installation work is not notifiable — namely additions and alterations to existing installations outside special locations, and replacements, repairs and maintenance anywhere.
The 2013 edition of Approved Document P reduced the range of notifiable work in England. Wales kept the earlier regime and still publishes the 2006 edition of Approved Document P incorporating the 2010 amendments, in which work is notifiable unless it appears on an exemption list. That divergence is the single biggest source of confusion on Part P, and it matters on every job near the border.
| Work | England | Wales |
|---|---|---|
| New circuit, anywhere in the dwelling | Notifiable | Notifiable |
| Consumer unit replacement | Notifiable | Notifiable |
| Addition or alteration to an existing circuit in a special location | Notifiable | Notifiable |
| Extra socket or lighting point on an existing kitchen circuit | Not notifiable | Notifiable |
| Outdoor lighting or power, garden and outbuilding wiring on an existing circuit | Not notifiable | Notifiable — outdoor lighting or power is a special installation |
| Electric floor or ceiling heating, solar PV, microCHP, extra-low voltage lighting installations | Not notifiable unless a new circuit is involved | Notifiable — listed as special installations |
| Extra socket or lighting point on an existing circuit elsewhere in the dwelling | Not notifiable | Not notifiable |
| Replacing an accessory with no new fixed cabling; repairs and maintenance | Not notifiable | Not notifiable |
| Installing or upgrading main or supplementary bonding | Not notifiable | Not notifiable |
Sources: regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 and Approved Document P 2013 edition (England); Approved Document P 2006 edition incorporating 2010 amendments, Tables 1 and 2 (Wales).
Fixed equipment is in scope even on a 13 A plug
Installing fixed electrical equipment is within the scope of Part P even where the final connection is a standard 13 A plug and socket. It is only notifiable if it involves work on the regulation 12(6A) list. Approved Document P gives the worked example: a built-in cooker is not notifiable unless a new cooker circuit is needed, and connecting an electric gate to an existing isolator is not notifiable, but installing the new circuit up to that isolator is.
Not notifiable does not mean not certificated
Non-notifiable work still has to comply with Part P and should be designed, installed, inspected, tested and certificated to BS 7671 (Approved Document P, paragraph 3.13). Local authorities can take enforcement action if non-notifiable work is found to be unsafe and non-compliant.
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02 · Building Regulations Guide
This is the term that decides whether a small job is notifiable, and it has a statutory definition that is narrower than most people assume. In England a special location is a measured space, not the whole bathroom.
| Boundary | Extent (England, regulation 12(9)) |
|---|---|
| Vertical | Finished floor level up to 2.25 m — or up to the shower head where it is fixed to a wall or ceiling higher than 2.25 m |
| Horizontal, with a bath tub or shower tray | 0.6 m from the edge of the bath tub or shower tray |
| Horizontal, no bath tub or shower tray | 1.2 m from the centre point of the shower head where it is attached to the wall or ceiling |
| Whole room | A room containing a swimming pool or a sauna heater |
Wales uses a list, not a measurement
The Welsh approved document lists special locations as locations containing a bath tub or shower basin, swimming pools or paddling pools, and hot air saunas — the whole location, not a measured envelope. It then adds special installations: electric floor or ceiling heating systems, outdoor lighting or power installations, solar photovoltaic power supply systems, small scale generators such as microCHP units, and extra-low voltage lighting installations other than pre-assembled lighting sets.
The statutory special location is not a BS 7671 zone
BS 7671 Section 701 defines zones 0, 1 and 2 for the purpose of selecting and erecting equipment. The building regulations special location is a separate, differently measured definition used only to decide whether the work is notifiable. Use Section 701 to design the circuit and the bathroom zone guide for the detail; use regulation 12(9) to decide whether to notify.
03 · Building Regulations Guide
Approved Document P, paragraph 3.1: for notifiable electrical installation work, one of three procedures must be used to certify that the work complies with the Building Regulations. Only the first avoids a building control charge and a wait.
| Route | When you notify | What the homeowner gets |
|---|---|---|
| Self-certification by a registered competent person | No prior notice. Notify your scheme after completion. | BS 7671 certificate from the installer, plus a Building Regulations compliance certificate from the installer or the registration body within 30 days of completion — a copy of which also goes to the building control body |
| Registered third-party certifier | Appoint the certifier before work begins; notify them within 5 days of completing the work | An electrical installation condition report from the certifier, plus a compliance certificate from the certifier’s registration body within 30 days of a satisfactory report |
| Building control body | Before work begins | A completion certificate from the local authority, or a final certificate from an approved inspector |
Source: Approved Document P 2013 edition, paragraphs 3.1 to 3.12.
The Building Regulations compliance certificate is a separate document from the BS 7671 certificate. You issue both. Regulation 644.4.201 of BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 sets the boundary: where the work does not include the provision of a new circuit or the replacement of a distribution board or consumer unit, a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate may be provided for each circuit added to or altered, as an alternative to an Electrical Installation Certificate.
New circuit or consumer unit replacement
Electrical Installation Certificate, with the Schedule of Inspections and the Schedule of Circuit Details and Test Results. A Minor Works Certificate is not permitted for either.
Addition or alteration to an existing circuit
Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, one per circuit added to or altered. This is the usual certificate for notifiable work in a special location that does not need a new circuit.
Consumer unit replacement — check AFDDs before you quote
Regulation 421.1.7 of BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 requires arc fault detection devices conforming to BS EN 62606 on single-phase AC final circuits supplying socket-outlets rated at not more than 32 A in high rise residential buildings, houses in multiple occupation, purpose-built student accommodation and care homes. For all other premises, including ordinary dwellings, AFDDs are recommended rather than required on those circuits. A note to the regulation takes high rise residential buildings as being over 18 m in height or more than six storeys, whichever is met first — so a board change in a converted house in multiple occupation is a different job from a board change in a semi.
04 · Building Regulations Guide
Part P is one short requirement in Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010. It has applied to work started on or after 1 January 2005, introduced by the Building (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2004. Requirement P1, Design and installation, reads:
“Reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury.”
Note what it does not say. It sets no numbers, names no standard and says nothing about notification — those come from elsewhere. BS 7671 is the accepted means of meeting it, and competent person schemes require work to be carried out to the current edition, now BS 7671:2018+A4:2026.
The limits on application in Schedule 1 restrict Part P to low or extra-low voltage installations that are:
That last pair is why a shop or public house below a flat can fall inside Part P when it shares the dwelling’s meter, and why sheds, detached garages and domestic greenhouses sharing the house supply are in scope even though they are otherwise exempt buildings. It is also why Part P covers fixed installations only — the Building Regulations define an electrical installation as fixed electrical cables or fixed electrical equipment on the consumer’s side of the electricity supply meter, so portable appliances are outside it.
05 · Building Regulations Guide
Notifiable work carried out with neither self-certification, third-party certification nor a building control notification is unauthorised building work. There is a statutory way back, and it is worth knowing before a conveyancing solicitor asks.
The fix is a regularisation certificate
Regulation 18 of the Building Regulations 2010 lets a local authority issue a regularisation certificate for unauthorised building work carried out on or after 11 November 1985. The owner applies to the local authority, which decides what needs to be exposed, inspected or tested before it can certify. Inspection and test results from an electrician support the application; they do not replace it. No competent person scheme can retrospectively self-certify someone else’s work.
Property sale
Conveyancing enquiries ask for building regulations evidence for notifiable work. Missing paperwork typically leads to a regularisation application, an indemnity policy, a price adjustment, or all three — and to delay while it is sorted out.
Enforcement
Local authorities have enforcement powers over non-compliant work, and Approved Document P confirms they can act even where the work was not notifiable, if it is found to be unsafe and non-compliant.
Liability
For the electrician, the practical exposure is evidential. Without certification and test results, demonstrating afterwards that the installation was designed, installed and verified properly is far harder — which matters if the installation is later implicated in a fire or an injury.
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06 · Building Regulations Guide
Part P is an England and Wales instrument. Neither of the other two nations has anything that maps onto it directly, and one of them has no building regulations electrical requirement at all.
Scotland — a warrant, not a notification
Electrical safety is standard 4.5 of Schedule 5 to the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004: every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that the electrical installation does not threaten the health and safety of the people in and around the building, and does not become a source of fire. Standard 4.6 adds a requirement for lighting points and socket outlets in domestic buildings. Control is exercised through the building warrant system rather than a notifiable-work list — Schedule 3 to those regulations exempts limited categories such as extra-low voltage installations. Self-certification is by an Approved Certifier of Construction under the certification of construction scheme for electrical installations, for which SELECT is the principal scheme provider.
Northern Ireland — no electrical Part
The Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 contain no Part covering electrical safety. Part P there is Sanitary appliances, unvented hot water storage systems and reducing the risk of scalding, and Technical Booklet E covers fire safety. There is consequently no building regulations notification or self-certification requirement for domestic electrical work in Northern Ireland. Installations should still be designed, installed, inspected and tested to BS 7671, and separate duties — landlord obligations, health and safety law, scheme membership required by a client — still apply.
Wales — same requirement, different notifiable list
Requirement P1 is identical in Wales. What differs is what has to be notified: Wales runs the 2006 edition of Approved Document P incorporating the 2010 amendments, so the wider pre-2013 list still applies. See the comparison table above.
07 · Building Regulations Guide
A competent person scheme is not a badge — it is a legal mechanism. Schedule 3 to the Building Regulations 2010 pairs a description of work with the bodies whose registered members may self-certify it. For paragraph 8, installation of fixed low or extra-low voltage electrical installations in dwellings, the bodies currently named are:
| Body named in Schedule 3 | Trades as | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Certsure LLP | NICEIC | The most recognisable brand with domestic customers; several registration tiers |
| NAPIT Registration Limited | NAPIT | Multi-discipline — also named for heating, ventilation, plumbing and microgeneration work |
| Blue Flame Certification Limited | Blue Flame Certification | Smaller operator, also named across the heating schedules |
| Oil Firing Technical Association Limited | OFTEC | Primarily oil-firing; named for electrical work in dwellings as well |
A separate entry, paragraph 9, covers electrical work in dwellings carried out as a necessary adjunct to other work by the registered person — that one also names the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (Certification) Limited.
Check the schedule, not a list you were sent
Schedule 3 is amended regularly, and operators have been added and removed. ELECSA and Stroma are no longer named in it for electrical work in dwellings, so treat any older comparison list as out of date and confirm against the current schedule before you register.
Pick on scope and assessment, not on logo recognition
All the bodies above carry the same legal weight for self-certification. The real differences are annual cost, assessment style, how much non-electrical work you can also certify, and what the technical support is like when you are stuck on site. The NICEIC vs NAPIT comparison goes through those in detail.
08 · Building Regulations Guide
The Building Regulations compliance certificate is your scheme’s job; the BS 7671 certificate is yours, and it is the one that holds jobs up. Elec-Mate builds Electrical Installation Certificates, Minor Works Certificates and EICRs on site and emails the PDF to the client before you have packed the van.
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