EICR Safe Isolation & Re-Energisation Checklist

An Electrical Installation Condition Report records the condition of an installation within the agreed extent and limitations. The visit also leaves a real premises in a real operating state. A good handback must make both outputs clear: what the report concludes and what is energised, isolated or awaiting action when the electrician leaves.

That distinction matters when an inspection uncovers danger, when testing requires circuits to be isolated, or when several people are working around the installation. Electrical Safety First's Best Practice Guide 4 explains the use of C1, C2, C3 and FI classification codes. Best Practice Guide 2 covers the management of safe isolation for low-voltage installations. Neither document turns a generic online checklist into authority to inspect, isolate or energise an installation.

This article is therefore an operational handback prompt for competent electricians. It does not reproduce BS 7671, a scheme-provider procedure, a risk assessment, method statement, permit-to-work system or site safety rules. Use the current source documents and your own competence for the technical work.

Before the first isolation, record the agreed extent and limitations of the EICR and the person ordering the report. Then establish the context that could affect safe isolation and restoration:

• the installation, distribution boards and circuits within scope;
• known circuit schedules, labels and previous reports, while treating records as information to verify, not proof;
• occupants, other trades and anyone relying on equipment that may lose supply;
• alternative or secondary sources, stored energy and automatic or remote controls;
• the site process for authorising isolation, reporting danger and communicating restoration;
• whether remedial work is commissioned or the visit is inspection and reporting only.

Best Practice Guide 2 warns that alterations and additions can be hazardous where circuit records are missing, inadequate or wrong, and highlights the risk of circuits operating through automatic controls. The practical response is not a disclaimer after the event: identify the correct circuit and all relevant sources before work, and make sure affected people understand what will be unavailable.

HSE says electrical equipment is safe to work on only when relevant energy sources have been securely isolated, stored energy has been released, and reconnection cannot expose people to risk. For work on or near exposed conductors, they should be proved dead with appropriate test equipment before work starts.

Best Practice Guide 2 sets out the controls in more detail: identify the correct point of isolation, use an appropriate means, secure every point in the off position, prevent inadvertent reinstatement, prove conductors dead and apply prohibition notices. The point of isolation should normally remain under the control of the person carrying out the work, or an equally effective authorised arrangement.

Where more than one operative is protected by the same isolation, the guide describes individual locks on a multi-lock hasp so the supply cannot be restored until everyone has completed their work and removed their own lock. Tape over a circuit-breaker is not an acceptable substitute for secure isolation. Record who controls the isolation and the circuit status; do not rely on a group message or an unowned note.

Best Practice Guide 4 describes the classification codes in practical terms:

• C1. Danger present: immediate remedial action is required. The person ordering the report should be advised without waiting for the full report, and appropriate action may include switching off and isolating the affected part.
• C2. Potentially dangerous: urgent remedial action is required, although the observed deficiency is not considered immediately dangerous at the time of inspection.
• C3. Improvement recommended: improvement would enhance safety, but the observation is not considered an immediate or potential danger.
• FI, further investigation required: use it where reasonable doubt remains about whether danger or potential danger exists and further investigation is needed.

The competent inspector owns the classification judgement. The customer, software or price of the remedial work should not change the code. Separately record any immediate safety action taken, who authorised or was informed of it, and whether remedial work was completed during the visit. An EICR observation, an isolation and a completed repair are different events even when they happen on the same day.

Re-energisation is not simply the reverse of switching off. Before restoring any supply, follow the applicable technical procedure and confirm the work area and installation are ready for that change. The exact checks depend on the installation, the work and the governing safe system, but the handback record should establish that:

• the inspection or work requiring isolation is complete;
• all people protected by the isolation are accounted for and have released their own locks under the site procedure;
• covers, barriers, enclosures and access controls affected by the work are in their required state;
• the relevant inspection and testing has been completed by a competent person;
• labels, schedules and circuit-status information are accurate for the state being restored;
• alternative sources and automatic or remote controls have been accounted for; and
• the people who may be affected are told that the circuit or area is live again.

Best Practice Guide 2 says circuits should not be energised and put into service before they are complete, inspected and tested, and that people on site should be informed when an area is energised. Do not restore a part known to be unsafe merely to return the premises to its previous state.

The customer should not have to infer the outcome from classification codes alone. At the end of the visit, state plainly:

1. which installation or areas were inspected, including the agreed limitations;
2. the EICR outcome and each observation, with its classification and location;
3. which circuits or equipment are energised, isolated or unavailable;
4. any immediate instruction needed to prevent use of an affected part;
5. what remedial work or further investigation is required, and with what urgency;
6. what work, if any, was completed during the visit;
7. which report, quote, photographs and completion documents have been issued.

Give urgent safety information directly to the responsible person; do not assume that uploading a report is enough. If a landlord, managing agent, site contact and occupier are different people, use the explicit job contacts and agreed responsibilities rather than guessing who has authority. The record should show who was informed, what they received and what was left outstanding.

An EICR can produce an appointment history, access notes, photographs, circuit-status updates, the condition report, a remedial quote and later completion documents. Tradehand keeps those items on one job timeline, so the office and attending electrician can see the same current state instead of reconstructing it from separate inboxes.

Use the job record to capture the agreed scope, who needs updates, isolation and restoration notes, observations, photographs and the final handback. The quote and job documents can then be shared through the public job page, keeping the customer's next action connected to the evidence behind it. If remedial work is booked later, the original EICR context remains attached to the job.

Tradehand does not prove dead, control a lock, assign EICR codes, decide whether a circuit is safe to energise or certify the installation. It supports the competent person's process by preserving the facts and communications around those decisions. The safe system of work remains the safe system of work; software is the record, not the protection.