It is important that you get work completed by a competent business or tradesperson, who are committed to quality, safety and consumer care.

NAPIT certificated scheme members have demonstrated their competence, they are required to hold the necessary insurances and have the right processes and procedures to assure compliance.

A confusing number of terms are used across the various schemes that consumers come across.

NAPIT Registration is authorised by the government to operate Competent Person Schemes in support of self certification against the Building Regulations in England and Wales. The current scope of NAPIT Competent Person Scheme authorisation can be reviewed at the Government website.

NAPIT Certification is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to certificate business or tradesperson across a wide range of schemes. A current schedule of NAPIT accreditation is available at the UKAS website.

Scheme members are usually both registered (i.e. on a register of approved business or tradesperson, such as that provided via the search facility on this website and those on the various scheme websites) and certificated (i.e. in receipt of a certificate approving them within the scope of a particular scheme). The search facility is a means of verifying the status of certification of a Scheme Member.

Not all work carried out by members is covered by regulatory requirements. This section aims to give a sufficient overview to understand which work is regulated.

The Building Regulations in England and Wales require that certain types of work are notified as compliant either via Building Control or by self-certification by a Competent Person. NAPIT registered scheme members in the areas of electrical, heating, plumbing, ventilation & air-conditioning, microgeneration and building fabric trades are able to certificate their own work, saving consumers the time and money that would otherwise be involved in using Building Control.

Building work throughout the UK is often subject to Planning Regulations and understanding whether planning permission is required, is the building owner’s responsibility. Some of the work areas that NAPIT are involved in are subject to what is called Permitted Development, which allows specific work to go ahead without planning permission provided certain requirements are satisfied. This is particularly true of microgeneration work and useful guidance is available on the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). Website for this.

Electrical work is covered by the Building Regulations in England and Wales, and throughout the UK it is also covered by what are titled the IET Wiring Regulations (BS 7671). Compliance with the Wiring Regulations is the accepted way to satisfy electrical safety legislation. Whilst Building Regulations Part P (electrical safety) is the most commonly referenced regulation, it is important to note that electrical work must comply with all relevant parts of the Building Regulations, therefore, NAPIT is not simply a “Part P Scheme” and NAPIT registered electrical contractors are not merely “Part P Approved”, despite this being common terminology in the industry.

Approved Document P itself states: Other parts of the Building Regulations contain requirements that affect electrical installations. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

1) Part A (Structure): depth of chases in walls, and size of holes and notches in floor and roof joists

2) Part B (Fire safety): fire safety of certain electrical installations; provision of fire alarm and fire detection systems; fire resistance of service penetrations through floors, walls and ceilings

3) Part C (Site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture): resistance of service penetrations to rainwater and contaminants such as radon

4) Part E (Resistance to the passage of sound): soundproofing of service penetrations

5) Part F (Ventilation): dwelling ventilation rates

6) Part L (Conservation of fuel and power): energy efficient lighting

7) Part M (Access to and use of buildings): height of socket-outlets and switches

Building Regulations vary across regions of the United Kingdom, further information can be found at the following external links:

England      Wales      Scotland      Northern Ireland      Jersey       Guernsey       Isle of Man

Governments offer grants to encourage eco friendly upgrades, that reduce carbon emissions reliance on fossil fuels and energy efficiency. This supports national and global climate goals.

NAPIT does not have any involvement in the management or operation of financial schemes, as that is the responsibility of Ofgem. 

It is important to know that you are in safe hands. NAPIT Members are committing themselves to comply with requirements that include; rectification of faults and effective handling of complaints.

Responsibility for compliance always lies with the business or tradesperson you engaged. The schemes require that the business or tradesperson warrant relevant work for a period of at least 6 years, within which time they must return and rectify any non-compliant matters that are attributable to their work.

The business or tradesperson should have made this commitment to you in writing in their quotation/contract paperwork. You may not be protected if you enter into an agreement with a business or tradesperson, without such details being provided in writing.

If a problem arises and the business or tradesperson is no longer certificated, but are still in business, they remain obliged to comply with the contract, irrespective of their certification status.

If they are no longer in business some protection may be available.