SIR – As an electrician I have never understood why the electrical safety regulations part P of the building regulations were drawn up in the way they are.

Instead of making it a requirement in England and Wales to use a qualified electrician for domestic electrical work, as has been a requirement in the Channel Islands for some time, the strange decision was made that domestic electrical work is considered more dangerous in kitchens, bathrooms and outdoors than elsewhere in the home.

As a result you can have two plug sockets on either side of a wall joined together with 150mm of wire both on the same circuit supplied from the same fuse with identical protective measures. One can be in a kitchen, requiring the involvement of the local authority building control (LABC) by inspection or notification that work has been carried out by an electrician who is a member of a selfcertification scheme. Yet the other socket, being in a lounge, does not require this LABC involvement – thus creating two levels of safety for various parts of homes.

The result of this is that if an electrician or other person carries out substandard work in a kitchen, bathroom or outdoors or a notification to building control is not made to LABC then a prosecution for failing to comply with building regulations can be brought against the person carrying out the work.

However, if it is in the lounge a person can be killed – but no prosecution will be brought against the person who carried out the work as they have not failed to comply with the building regulations.

I consider this a failure by the Government to fully address the problem of electrical installation safety.

ANDREW BETTERIDGE, Worcester