How to Hire a PAT Tester: Qualifications, Questions, and Red Flags

The PAT testing industry has no formal regulatory barrier to entry. Anyone can buy a PAT tester, print some labels, and start offering a service. The result is significant variation in competence, thoroughness, and the quality of the records produced.

For buyers, this means the hiring decision matters. A cheap contractor who produces unreliable records or misses genuine faults does not just represent poor value — it produces a compliance gap while giving you false assurance that the job was done properly.

What qualifications should a PAT tester hold?

There is no single mandatory qualification for PAT testing in UK law. The legal requirement, under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the IET Code of Practice (5th edition), is that the person is competent to carry out the work safely. Competence is assessed against knowledge, training, and experience.

In practice, the qualification most widely recognised as evidence of competence for formal combined inspection and testing (the full PAT test) is:

City & Guilds 2377 (In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment): The current award is the 2377-77 Level 3, which superseded earlier versions (2377-22, 2377-32) of the same qualification suite. It covers the theory behind electrical safety, the use of test equipment, and the documentation requirements. Holders will have passed both a written exam and a practical assessment.

Some PAT testers hold qualifications from the NICEIC, ELECSA, or the ECA, or hold apprenticeship qualifications in electrical installation. These are relevant credentials that suggest a broader electrical competence base, but they do not substitute for specific PAT testing training.

When a contractor quotes a qualification, ask to see the certificate. Checking the date matters: the IET Code of Practice has been updated several times; someone who trained to the third edition may not be up to date on current guidance.

What equipment should the contractor use?

A professional PAT tester uses calibrated test equipment — typically a combined PAT tester device — that measures:

Earth continuity: Checks the earth connection is intact, protecting against shock in the event of a fault
Insulation resistance: Tests that the insulation around live conductors is not degraded
Leakage current: Measured for Class I and Class II appliances; detects current flowing where it should not

The test equipment itself must be calibrated — meaning its measurements have been verified against known standards. Calibration certificates for the test equipment should be current and available on request.

A contractor who cannot produce calibration evidence for their test equipment has no verifiable basis for claiming their measurements are accurate.

Questions to ask before hiring

Before engaging a contractor, ask these directly:

What qualifications do your testing staff hold? (Ask for City & Guilds 2377 — current award is 2377-77 — by name)
Can I see your current calibration certificates for your test equipment?
What format will the test records take? (You want a per-appliance register, not just a certificate of visit)
Are your staff covered by public liability insurance while on my premises?
Do you carry out just a combined test, or also a formal visual inspection? (Both should be included)
What happens when you find a failed appliance? (There should be a clear procedure for labelling, quarantining, and documenting failures)

If any of these questions produce evasion or vague answers, treat that as a material concern.

Red flags to watch for

Price far below market rate. Legitimate PAT testing with calibrated equipment and qualified staff costs money. A quote of £0.20 or £0.30 per appliance in a 500-appliance environment should prompt questions about what corners are being cut. As an indicative range, professional contractors typically charge £1–£3 per appliance depending on volume, region, and equipment type — figures vary significantly and you should obtain quotes to establish current market rates in your area.

No per-appliance records. Some contractors issue a single certificate saying "X appliances tested on Y date — all pass." This is not a compliant record. You need a list of appliances tested with their individual results, identifiers, and next test dates. Without this, you cannot demonstrate which specific appliances were tested, identify ones that were missed, or build a register for ongoing management.

Labels but no register. Labels on appliances are not a substitute for a test register. Labels can be transferred, get lost, or be applied without corresponding tests. The register is the compliance evidence.

Unwillingness to test failed appliances. A competent contractor should be willing to tell you clearly that a specific appliance failed and what the fault is. Some contractors — particularly those competing on speed — skip appliances that are hard to access or show visible damage, rather than logging them as failed. Ask how failures are handled before the work starts.

No mention of visual inspection. A combined PAT test includes both a visual inspection and electronic testing. Some operations focus solely on plugging in the test device and printing a label, skipping the visual component. Visible damage — cracked plugs, frayed cables, burn marks — is often more dangerous than what the electronic test will find, and should be part of every test cycle.

Building a long-term relationship vs. using a single contractor

Some businesses use the same contractor year after year; others put the work out to quote each time. The practical argument for continuity is that a contractor who has built your appliance register in a format consistent with your internal system can update it each cycle, reducing administrative overhead. One-off contractors typically produce records in their own format, which then needs to be reconciled with your existing register.

If you switch contractors, require the new contractor to work from your existing asset register rather than creating a new one from scratch. This maintains continuity of the unique asset identifiers that allow you to track each appliance's history.

Managing a contractor on the day

Even with a competent contractor, the day of testing needs some management:

Provide access to all areas. Locked cupboards, storage rooms, and server rooms need to be accessible at the scheduled time.
Make sure any appliances not permanently on site (laptops that travel, equipment currently being used off-site) are accounted for and tested at their next opportunity.
Confirm with the contractor how failures will be communicated. Ideally, you should receive a real-time update when a fault is found so you can decide immediately whether to quarantine or continue using with a plan for repair.

For more on the outsourcing vs. in-house decision, including a cost comparison, see outsourcing vs in-house PAT testing. For guidance on what competent in-house testing looks like, see who can do PAT testing.

The information in this post reflects the law as of the date last reviewed. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and PUWER 1998 apply in Great Britain rather than UK-wide — EAWR regulation 31 and PUWER regulation 3(1) each say the Regulations "shall apply— (a) in Great Britain" — and a Northern Ireland workplace is governed by the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 and the Electricity at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1991 instead. Regulations change. Check legislation.gov.uk for current statutory text and HSE.gov.uk for current guidance before making compliance decisions.