PAT testing
A competent person visually inspects and electrically tests your portable appliances — kettles, toasters, extension leads, coffee grinders, till units and anything else with a plug — and tags each one with a pass date.
A competent person visually inspects and electrically tests your portable appliances — kettles, toasters, extension leads, coffee grinders, till units and anything else with a plug — and tags each one with a pass date.
A frayed cable or a damaged plug on a piece of kitchen equipment is a live electrocution and fire risk, and PAT records are one of the first things an HSE inspector or insurer asks to see after any electrical incident.
A competent person can be an in-house trained staff member or a visiting electrician — either is acceptable.
Who this is for
Any venue with portable electrical appliances — effectively every kitchen, bar and cafe.
What you’ll hold
- PAT test record listing each appliance, result and next-due date
Watch out for
- Testing annually by default without ever reviewing the interval — HSE explicitly expects this to be risk-based, not a blanket yearly ritual.
- Missing new equipment bought between test rounds, so it is never added to the register.
- Relying on the pass sticker alone with no written record — if a sticker is removed or fades, you have nothing to show.
Sources
- HSE — Maintaining electrical equipment safety checked 2026-09-02
- HSE — Maintaining portable electric equipment in low-risk environments checked 2026-09-02
See also
- PAT test everything portable— this becomes part of getting open →
- EICR — fixed wire test
This is item 41 of 60 in the free UK Compliance Calendar. See the whole list →