Select calls for mandatory certification 

Select, the campaigning trade body for Scotland's electrical sector, has called for certification schemes which guarantee the quality of work in the construction industry to become mandatory.

The organisation's managing director, Newell McGuiness, said there were concerns that the industry had become disengaged from the process and that lack of government support meant that the schemes now risk failure.

Speaking in the wake of the new Approved Certifier scheme, McGuiness said it had been a flaw in the legislation not to make certification the industry standard. He said this was reflected in the falling certificate numbers since the introduction of the Building Scotland Act of 2003.

McGuiness said certification of construction is a robust and reliable method for signing off electrical work and that, although the 2003 Act re-instituted competency into the sign-off process it allowed certification to become optional.

He said: "In correcting one flaw we inadvertently introduced another, and what we are now seeing with the fall-off in Certificate numbers and the disengagement from the Certification process is really exactly the same effect we saw with previous schemes. History is, I’m afraid, repeating itself and it is because we have not learned to make sure the legislation is watertight, or robust enough."

The Approved Certifiers of Construction scheme officially endorses the culmination of Select’s long-term commitment to the highest possible standards and has the potential to transform the perception of the skilled tradesmen and technicians.

It will also increase the opportunities available to qualifying businesses, especially those who have driven forward the green agenda of micro-renewable technologies.