What is Part P ?

Part P is a relatively recent addition to the Building Regulations.

It came into force in January 2005.

It's about "Electrical Safety" and sets down some rules about the way things should be done.
If you really want to read it, here you go Electrical Safety


Special Risk Areas.

From an electrical perspective, Part P splits the areas of the home into two categories.

One is known as Areas of Special Risk, and then there's the rest of the house.

The common areas of special risk are

Notifiable Work

The regulations require that some (quite a lot) electrical jobs are notified to the local council.
And it's not only jobs in special risk areas, it also depends on the type of job.

If you're NOT a registered electrician,
then such jobs have to be notified BEFORE you start,
and the council will check the work is done properly BEFORE you're allowed to turn the power back on.

Have some candles handy !

A registered electrician can do the job and then notify after the event.

What can you do yourself ?

The first rule is that you must be "competent". You need to know what you're doing.

After that, you're allowed to do like-for-like replacements of switches, sockets etc in the "rest of the house".

That's pretty much all.