Electrician investigates tragic death of 7-year-old boy

There’s a big problem in the industry where we trust that people have done the right thing.

In this case it was a pub landlord that was trusted to have had his electrical installation compliant and tested to ensure it was safe. Yes, there is legislation out there to enforce electrical safety but it doesn’t work when someone is ignorant and goes against it. The result can mean someone innocent gets hurt or killed. The accident is looked into by pulling up documentation to figure out what has happened. But unfortunately then it’s too late!

The pub featured in my video was able to go against everything. They should never have had their doors opened to the public without electrical inspection, testing and certification. One simple electrical spot check on this property would have had alarm bells ringing immediately. Yet that never happened and public house doors remain open across the UK with or without electrical safety compliance.

We have a way in the electrical industry of setting the standards, telling everyone to implement them, and then leave them to it. Again, yes there is legislation and consequences if you don’t conform, but sadly this can be too late, the worst damage is already done. That needs to change.

There needs to be a governing body for public spaces where electrical certificates and EICRs must be uploaded. These are to be made accessible to the public. Safety training is to be given to landlords, better support for electricians that need to be whistleblowers in these scenarios, they need somewhere to turn to and actually get support and action from. Plus random spot checks made by local councils that are specifically visiting to spot check the general electrics of a property.

By implementing some key changes into the industry, I believe that this will help highlight potential dangers before being possible to expose them to the general public.

Harvey’s mum, Danielle Jones, says in the petition calling for change: “On 11th September 2018 our beautiful seven-year-old son Harvey was electrocuted in the garden at the King Harold Public House, Harold Wood, Essex. His death was completely avoidable.

“The pub owner plead guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and his brother in law was found guilty of a Health and Safety Breach due to his negligence in installing the garden lights safely. Both are serving prison sentences.

“From the amount of evidence that was collected it is clear that the law around electrical works in a public house needs urgent attention. The current mandatory regulation is the Electricity at Work Regulations – Regulation 4 deals with the need to keep records and have the installation regularly tested and Inspected. However, this is down to the duty holder to provide the relevant certification and there is no one monitoring or checking that the standards and safety is met. The King Harold has had no checks since 2009.

“Although there are a number of pubs that adhere to health and safety, there are also a number of pubs which are complete death traps, visually they may look nice but it’s what’s going on behind the scenes is a major concern.

“We want to campaign that every public house should have to provide yearly certification that the electrical works have been tested and inspected. The fee for the inspection should be added onto the license fee. Failure to comply with this, the landlords insurance and license should be made void and a fine should be issued. The local authorities and licensing departments should be in control of enforcing this and monitoring their local public houses.

“We can’t bring our beautiful baby boy back but we can help save the lives of others by making sure public houses are a safe place to dine and drink.”