§ Lord Stoddart of Swindonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Rooker on 2 December 2004 (WA 17 ) concerning the implications of the Building (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/1808), how many additional qualified local authority inspectors will be required to process the notifications of electrical work to be undertaken by private householders and to inspect the work after completion; and what is the likely cost of such processing and inspection to the household. [HL663]
§ The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)The number of additional local authority inspectors needed to process applications for and inspect electrical installation work undertaken by private householders is dependent on the number of notifications made to the local authorities. All local authorities in England and Wales will need adequate resources to undertake this work. Local authorities are required to set their own charges for carrying out their main building control functions, which should be based on full cost recovery. Thus, they should be able to employ additional resources to meet demand.
Local authority building control charges are generally set in bands based on the value of the notifiable work in their schemes which each authority 125WA must make publicly available. Much notifiable electrical installation work undertaken by private householders should fall into the lowest band.