1. Electrical & Safety Management Ltd.
http://www.electricalandsafetymanagementltd.com
Electrical Risk Management & Control
Contents
Forward...................................................................................................................................................2
Causes of Electrical Accidents.................................................................................................................2
Consequences.........................................................................................................................................3
Responsibilities .......................................................................................................................................3
Code of Practice for Safe Working On Low Voltage Electrical Installations ...........................................3
ESM Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Management Guidance.......................................................4
IET Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Management .........................................................................4
Who should be aware of the Code of Practice? .................................................................................4
The process.........................................................................................................................................5
What the Code of Practice enables organisations to do ....................................................................5
A final point.............................................................................................................................................5

2. Electrical & Safety Management Ltd.
http://www.electricalandsafetymanagementltd.com
Forward
Electrical Safety Management Ltd. is a company dedicated to the health and safety of workers in industry who
are engaged in electrical work.
The fact is that people are the cause of most accidents through inadequate working practices and procedures.
We are well aware of the risks of getting safety management wrong.
Many organisations do not have adequate safety management systems with the necessary policies,
procedures and competent people.
The organisation suffers and workers can be put at unnecessary risk, it is therefore essential that risks are
controlled competently.
Managers can often have a difficult task of pointing out to employees, fellow managers and clients that they
need to do some things for good reasons.
Electricity can be dangerous, and it pays to be safe, avoiding the cost of incidents. It helps the business run
smoothly and business continuity can often be critical to a company’s survival.
There are considerable financial and legal implications if things go wrong.
The risks can be managed.
Clients will expect it; Workers will expect it & the law demands it.
Causes of Electrical Accidents
Below is a chart showing the breakdown of the causes of electrical accidents.
Source; Global H&S Forum
68% Inadequate Working Practices
 Safe systems of work not in place = Workers put at risk
 Employer has not provided safe working procedures = Workers put at risk
 Competence of workers / Unsafe Act = Workers put at risk
20% Failure to Maintain
 Fixed Wiring periodic testing (Faulty Wiring, Accessories) = Fire Risk, Danger to Life
 PAT Testing (Faulty Equipment) = Fire Risk, Danger to Life
 Maintenance of switchgear (Dangerous Equipment) = Fire Risk, Danger to Life
12% Other Causes
 Damage to cables & equipment
 Lightning strike
 Other unforeseeable events
68%
Inadequate
Working
Practices
20% Failure to
Maintain
12% Other
Causes
CAUSES OF ELECTRICAL ACCIDENTS

3. Electrical & Safety Management Ltd.
http://www.electricalandsafetymanagementltd.com
Consequences
There are significant consequences for business if there is a serious mistake or incident. Disruption with
productivity loss and unpredictable affecting business continuity.
Costs arise for the business from the injured person, the additional work and consequential costs for the
company, for the community and prevention of further incidents.
Ignoring these consequences, hoping they will not happen can be a costly mistake.
During 2013/14, 674 cases of safety non-compliance were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive, local
authorities or procurator fiscal, with a 94 per cent success rate.
As of March 2015, 186 individuals had received immediate or suspended prison sentences for health and
safety at work offences since 1975.
Of those, 137 occurred since May 2008.
Responsibilities
Managers and technical personnel have responsibilities for managing the risks to control the
electrical installation and the activities affected by it. The health and safety of any organisation’s
workers, contractors and others potentially at risk has to be managed.
There have to be policies, procedures and competent people for that system. It is necessary to
ensure that persons working at that installation are capable and have their limitations recognised
and formally managed.
Often clients and managers lack the competence and confidence to improve their safety
management. Safety management has to be made accessible to technical and non-technical people
so that risks to people and their business are safely reduced.
There are serious effects of an incident on the company, injured person, other workers, families, and
members of public. Directors and managers can be jailed, large fines and costs can affect the
organisation. That’s before we start on the other consequential costs and psychological damage.
I have worked for over 30 years as an electrical engineer, covering a wide range of industrial and
commercial sectors and investigating many serious incidents. This has given me the experience to
assist many organisations in managing their risks.
Code of Practice for Safe Working On Low Voltage Electrical
Installations
In 2009 following a serious electrical incident at a company I worked for, I was asked to look into a set of rules
to safeguard the workers and the business, I formulated a framework and authored a Code of Practice for Safe
Working On Low Voltage Electrical Installations, it was put to the HSE by that company and was approved as
good practice. I have subsequently regularly reviewed and updated it to ensure its compliance with current
legislation & best practice.
I have implemented this CoP at various companies I have since worked for, as a result, I have seen the number
of and severity of electrical incidents significantly reduce.
This CoP is intended to provide;
• Electrical safety policy
• Leadership Hierarchy
• Safe working practices
• Procedures
• Appointments, roles and responsibilities
• Training
• Competence
• Working on or near exposed live electrical parts

4. Electrical & Safety Management Ltd.
http://www.electricalandsafetymanagementltd.com
ESM Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Management Guidance
This year, 2016, We have developed a guidance process to assist organisations in achieving the level
of compliance it requires with the IET CoP for Electrical Safety Management, this follows the process
of Self-Assessment and Evaluation leading to the Next Steps for improvement, including formulating
an Improvement Plan, a programme for improvement actions and a review process for
measurement of performance.
IET Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Management
In 2013, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) published the Code of Practice for Electrical Safety
Management, as a tool to help organisations of all sizes. It provides guidance on the process for managing
electrical safety, and aiding responsible personnel to reach a certain level of knowledge and understanding to
manage the risks associated with an electrical system.
The CoP offers, in a single document, a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of electrical safety in the
workplace. It has a structured approach to managing electrical safety.
The result of applying this guidance is confidence that risks associated with an electrical system are adequately
covered. It also provides an outline structure for managing other health and safety hazards.
The structured approach was seen as an important aspect of the project to avoid issues associated with a
‘firefighting’ or ‘gap filling’ approach, often witnessed when dealing with a broad range of individuals within
organisations. Another important aspect of this structured approach is to offer a way of involving people,
gathering evidence and to determine where improvements are needed.
Who should be aware of the Code of Practice?
There are likely to be a number of people responsible for electrical safety within many organisations who may
not have an adequate underpinning knowledge of electrical safety. The code of practice has been written to
enable both technical and non-technical people to understand the broad range of related activities and key
requirements that need to be considered.
It is not intended to provide an introduction to the first principles of electricity or attempt to replace the
detailed procedures which may already be in place in organisations. Instead, it aims to bridge the gap between
these areas of knowledge by providing comprehensive good practice recommendations and advice.
As the included activities are based on good practice health and safety principles, there is also no
differentiation on applicability related to both the size and type of organisation. This means that the code of
practice is applicable to a range of responsible people in small, medium and large scale organisations across a
broad range of industry, commerce and the public sector, as most organisations have some form of electrical
system.
Examples of typical job roles that should find this code of practice useful include:
•Operations or engineering managers
•Building or facilities managers
•Project or production managers and engineers
•Health and safety managers and consultants.
In the broadest context the code of practice will be applicable to all employees, managers and trainees who
are involved in or managing electrically related work who do not have an overview of electrical safety systems.
This includes administrators, inexperienced electrical workers and those that may not have electrical skills as
their core discipline. It can also be used by those contracting out electrical work to ensure that it is done within
appropriate safety management principles and complies with relevant standards.

5. Electrical & Safety Management Ltd.
http://www.electricalandsafetymanagementltd.com
The process
The code of practice highlights four important aspects to consider.
Three general areas (policy, procedure, and people) would be regarded as applicable to all organisations.
The final one (specific issues) deals with certain aspects of electrical systems that may or may not be relevant
to an organisation.
Each of these key elements has an associated group of topics to address (potentially 26 in total). Some
example topics taken from each of the above groups include:
• Electrical safety policy
• Leadership
• Safe working practices
• Procedures
• Incident investigation
• Appointments, roles and responsibilities
• Training
• Competence
• Working on or near exposed live electrical parts
• Buried cables on your land
An important element of the overall approach to the project was to include an evaluation tool in the form of
self-assessment questions associated with each of the topics. This makes the whole process more practical to
end users as they are able to determine a response to the questions.
The questions are designed to determine what level of activity is in place for the respective topics. As can be
envisaged, this produces a detailed summary of what an organisation actually does (or not) in the context of
managing electrical safety. Each topic follows a simple template and includes one or more questions related to
the topic as well as some key requirements in the form of simple bulleted lists.
The resulting self-assessment summary can then be used to determine any required improvement action plan
and report the outcome to interested parties across an organisation.
What the Code of Practice enables organisations to do
It enables the organisation to assemble an evidence base of the electrical safety management system, its
strengths and weaknesses. An organisation can recognise where they need to improve and be better placed to
request assistance in particular areas of their business if using external resources. They can better understand
what they need to do to follow recognised good practice activities and produce a prioritised action plan tuned
to their particular business needs.
Resources, whether they are internal or external, can be used effectively so that they are addressing the
relevant issues and should therefore provide effective management. If confronted with a difficult situation the
organisation can demonstrate its safety management system and its efforts to improve.
A final point
It is important to highlight is that the intention is not to regard the self-assessment and resulting evaluation as
a one-shot activity: it should be included within a continuous improvement plan.
Organisations change, which means there is normally an evolution of infrastructure, equipment, processes and
people where the underlying risks and the required control measures will also potentially change.