How to Check an Electrician Is Qualified

In England and Wales there is a single register of electricians who can self-certify their own work: the Registered Competent Person Electrical search at electricalcompetentperson.co.uk. Every government-approved electrical scheme feeds into it, so you do not need to know whether an electrician is with NICEIC, NAPIT or another operator before you look.

Two ways to use it:

• To find one: enter your postcode and choose whether you need installation or remedial work, or an electrical safety report.
• To check one: search by company name. If the business that quoted you is registered, the listing shows the registered trading address and which scheme they belong to. Check the name and address match the quote.

Electrical Safety First, the safety charity, runs an equivalent finder at electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk that also lists SELECT-registered electricians in Scotland.

The individual schemes have their own checks too. NICEIC's Browse Tradespeople search takes a location or a company name; if a business is not listed, NICEIC's advice is to call 0333 015 6625 before assuming anything, because the register is the proof and a logo on a van is not. NAPIT's search at search.napit.org.uk works by location, company name or member number, and has a separate tab for withdrawn members.

Part P of the Building Regulations has applied to homes in England and Wales since 2005. Electrical work must be designed and installed to protect people from fire and electric shock, and the homeowner has to be able to prove it complies.

Since 2013 only three kinds of work are notifiable, meaning building control must know about them:

1. Installing a new circuit.
2. Replacing a consumer unit (the fuse box).
3. Any addition or alteration to an existing circuit in a special location, which means the zones around a bath or shower.

Everything else, including adding a socket to an existing circuit in a kitchen, is not notifiable, though the work still has to meet the standard.

Notifiable work has three legal routes: an electrician registered with a competent person scheme self-certifies; a registered third-party certifier inspects an unregistered electrician's work; or you apply to your council's building control, which costs more and takes longer. A registered electrician is the route almost everyone uses. Scotland runs a separate building standards system with Approved Certifiers of Construction; Northern Ireland has no equivalent requirement.

• Scheme registration. The business name and registration number, which you then check on the register yourself.
• Public liability insurance. Electrical Safety First's guidance is at least £2 million. Read the certificate for the insured name and the expiry date.
• The standard they work to. BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, 18th Edition. Amendment 4 was published in 2026 and Amendment 3 stays valid until 15 October 2026, so either answer is current.
• Their qualification. The recognised route is a Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Installing Electrotechnical Systems and Equipment or the Level 3 Electrotechnical Qualification. A registered business has already had this assessed, which is why the register is the check that matters.
• Three written quotes and references. Both are on Electrical Safety First's list. So is not being pressured into a quick decision.

Every job ends with paper, and the paper tells you whether the work was tested.

• Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for an addition or alteration to an existing circuit.
• Electrical Installation Certificate for a new circuit, a consumer unit replacement or a rewire.
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) when you have had the installation inspected rather than changed.
• Building Regulations Compliance Certificate for any notifiable job. A registered electrician completes the BS 7671 certificate, notifies building control and has the compliance certificate sent to you within 30 days. NICEIC gives its businesses 25 days to notify and says to complain if nothing has arrived after a month.

Keep all of them. A buyer's solicitor will ask for the compliance certificate when you sell.

Partly. There is no single national lookup for electrical certificates. Two things can be checked:

• Compliance certificates issued through NICEIC or the former ELECSA scheme can be checked, and a duplicate ordered, at checkmynotification.com. Notifications older than six years may not be held.
• Building control records at your local council show whether notifiable work was notified, whichever scheme did the job.

The Electrical Installation Certificate itself and any EICR come from the electrician who did the work; NICEIC cannot confirm the validity of a certificate it did not issue. If you have bought a house and the paperwork is missing, an EICR from a registered electrician gives you a tested record of what is actually there.

Write to the electrician first with what is wrong and a date to put it right. If they are registered, the scheme operator has a complaints process and can require the work to be fixed as a condition of staying registered. For work that was never notified or an electrician who claimed a registration they do not hold, call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133, which passes cases to Trading Standards. If you are worried about safety, an EICR from a different registered electrician documents the faults.