Part P self-certification UK: NICEIC vs NAPIT vs ELECSA vs Stroma in plain English

A spark I've worked alongside on a few extensions swapped a consumer unit for a customer in Leeds. Tidy job, tested properly, EIC filled in, everything as it should be. Eighteen months later the customer sold the house and the buyer's solicitor asked for the Building Regulations compliance certificate. There wasn't one, because he'd never joined a scheme and never notified building control. The sale stalled, the council wanted a regularisation application, and he ended up paying most of it himself to keep his name clean.

That's the whole argument for Part P registration in one story. Not the paperwork. The bit at the end where somebody sells the house.

This guide covers what's actually notifiable, which schemes still exist in 2026 (two of the four in the title don't), what registration costs, and the maths on when it pays for itself.

What Part P actually covers

Part P of the Building Regulations covers electrical safety in dwellings in England and Wales. It applies to houses, flats, and the bits attached to them like garages, gardens and outbuildings. It does not apply to commercial or industrial premises, and it does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Two things get muddled constantly, so it's worth separating them.

Compliance means the work meets BS 7671. That applies to every job you touch, from a single socket outwards, and it's why you issue a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate or an Electrical Installation Certificate on the work you do.

Notification is the extra step where the local authority is told the work happened and a Building Regulations compliance certificate is issued. Only some work needs it.

Notifiable work in England

Since April 2013 the England list is short:

• Installation of a new circuit. New shower circuit, new cooker circuit, new ring for an extension, new supply to a garden office.
• Replacement or relocation of a consumer unit. Any board change, including a straight swap for an 18th Edition board with SPD and RCBOs.
• Addition or alteration to an existing circuit in a special location. Special location means the defined zones in a room containing a bath or shower, or a room with a swimming pool or sauna heater.

That's it for England. Adding a socket in a kitchen, running a spur to a garden light, wiring an outside socket: not notifiable since 2013. Still needs to comply, still needs certifying, just no notification.

Notifiable work in Wales

Wales did not follow the 2013 change. The Welsh scope still includes the three above plus additions and alterations to existing circuits in kitchens, in special locations, and outdoors. If you work either side of the border, treat Wales as the older, wider rules and check gov.wales before you price a job.

The four schemes, and what happened to two of them

Search "Part P scheme" and you still get pages comparing NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA and Stroma as if all four were live. They aren't.

• NICEIC. Run by Certsure. The oldest and best-known name, heavy brand recognition with homeowners and with housing associations, letting agents and main contractors.
• NAPIT. The main competitor. Multi-trade from the start, so it registers electricians alongside plumbers, heating and renewables. Generally the cheaper of the two.
• ELECSA. Also owned by Certsure, and retired as a brand from April 2021. Registered members were moved across to NICEIC. If a scheme comparison from 2019 sent you looking for ELECSA, that's why you can't find a price list.
• Stroma. Stroma's installer certification business was acquired by NAPIT and the scheme closed and merged into NAPIT in August 2021. Stroma itself still exists, doing building control, energy assessment and testing, just not installer certification.

So in practice you're choosing between NICEIC and NAPIT, with a few smaller authorised schemes such as BESCA and Blue Flame worth a look if your work mix is unusual. The current authorised list sits on gov.uk, and it's the only list that matters. A scheme not on it can't self-certify, whatever the website says.

NICEIC or NAPIT: the honest read

Both are authorised, both issue the same compliance certificate, and both carry the same legal weight. The differences are commercial, not regulatory.

NICEIC wins on recognition. If you quote domestic work in an area with a lot of estate agents, or you want on approved-contractor lists for social housing and insurance work, the logo does some of the selling for you. Customers have heard of it. Their solicitors have heard of it.

NAPIT usually wins on price and on breadth. If you also do heating controls, EV chargers, solar or plumbing, one registration can cover several trades instead of paying two bodies. Assessors are widely reported to be pragmatic, and the multi-trade angle suits a small firm that does a bit of everything.

The assessment itself is broadly the same shape either way. An assessor comes to you, checks your qualified supervisor's credentials, looks at your test instruments and calibration certificates, reviews your certification paperwork, and inspects one or two live or recent jobs. Then it repeats annually or on a set cycle. Neither of them is trying to catch you out. They're checking you test properly and write it down properly.

What it costs, with real numbers

Scheme fees move around and both bodies do trade-body and first-year offers, so treat these as budget figures and get a live quote before you commit.

• NICEIC domestic installer registration: broadly £500 to £700 a year including assessment
• NAPIT domestic registration: broadly £400 to £600 a year including assessment
• Instrument calibration: £80 to £150 per instrument, annually
• Public liability insurance: from around £70 to £150 a year for a sole trader
• 18th Edition (C&G 2382) if you need it: £350 to £600 one-off
• Inspection and testing (2391 series or equivalent) if you need it: £800 to £1,400 one-off

Worked example: Wójcik Electrical, one van, Leeds

Adam Wójcik trading as Wójcik Electrical does mostly domestic work. Last year's job book had 24 jobs that would be notifiable in England: 9 consumer unit changes, 11 new circuits (showers, cookers, garden supplies) and 4 bathroom alterations inside the zones.

Option A, no registration, notify building control each time.

• 24 notifications at £250 average: £6,000
• Roughly £250 added to every single quote, or absorbed
• Plus waiting on inspection dates, which on a board change means going back

Option B, NAPIT domestic registration.

• Registration and assessment: £520
• Calibration on two instruments: £190
• Total for the year: £710, covering all 24 notifications

Difference: £5,290 for the year. Break-even is three notifiable jobs. Adam hits that by the third week of January.

The maths only turns the other way if you genuinely do one or two notifiable jobs a year, say you're mainly a maintenance spark on commercial premises with the odd domestic favour. In that case pay building control per job and don't carry the annual fee.

There's a third route worth knowing about: a registered third-party certifier, an approved electrician who inspects and certifies someone else's notifiable work. Useful as a stopgap while your own registration is going through, and useful if you take on a job that's already half done by someone who's disappeared. It costs more per job than being registered yourself and finding one locally can take a few calls.

What you need before you apply

Applying with half of this in place is the main reason first assessments get deferred. Get it lined up first.

• A qualified supervisor. Usually you. The scheme wants evidence of competence: an electrical apprenticeship, NVQ Level 3, or a recognised domestic installer route, plus the current wiring regulations qualification and inspection and testing.
• BS 7671 18th Edition in its current amendment, plus the On-Site Guide. Physical copies on the van are fine and assessors like seeing them used.
• Calibrated test instruments. Multifunction tester and a proving unit at minimum, with in-date calibration certificates. An out-of-date certificate on assessment day is an easy fail on an otherwise good visit.
• Public liability insurance. £2m is the usual floor, £5m if you want on main contractor lists.
• Two or three completed jobs with certificates. The assessor needs live work to look at. Keep the EICs, MEIWCs, test results and photos filed by job.
• A written complaints procedure and H&S policy. One page each is enough for a sole trader.

The paperwork half of that is the bit that catches people out, because it isn't the electrics. If your certificates live in a glovebox and your job photos live in your camera roll, an assessment is a bad week. Keeping certificates, photos and sign-offs attached to the job as you go, which is the whole reason we built TradeStash, turns assessment prep into an hour instead of a weekend.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Part P is an England and Wales thing. Everywhere else works differently.

Scotland has no Part P. Electrical safety sits in the building standards system under Section 4.5 of the technical handbooks, and some work needs a building warrant from the local authority before it starts. Certification of construction schemes run by bodies such as SELECT, NICEIC and NAPIT let approved certifiers sign off electrical work without full council inspection. Start at gov.scot for the current position.

Wales uses Part P with the wider pre-2013 scope described earlier, and its own competent person scheme guidance on gov.wales.

Northern Ireland runs its own Building Regulations and does not have an England-style Part P self-certification route for domestic electrical work. Check with the building control department of the relevant district council before you price notifiable-looking work there.

What NOT to do (5 common mistakes)

1. Don't do a board change and sort the notification later. Scheme members have 30 days. Non-members have to notify before the work starts. Miss both windows and you're into regularisation, which costs more and can mean opening work back up.
2. Don't assume kitchens are still notifiable in England. They came out of scope in April 2013. Notifying anyway wastes your money and confuses building control. In Wales, they still are, so know which side of the border you're on.
3. Don't let calibration lapse. Test results from an out-of-calibration instrument are hard to defend, on assessment day and in front of anybody asking questions after a fire or an insurance claim.
4. Don't pick a scheme on the joining fee alone. Compare the second-year cost, what the reassessment cycle looks like, whether technical helpline access is included, and whether one registration can cover your other trades. First-year offers even out fast.
5. Don't leave the compliance certificate to chance. The customer gets it, and so do you, filed against the job. It's the document their buyer's solicitor asks for years later, and being the electrician who can email it back in two minutes is worth more repeat work than any advert.

The short version

If you do notifiable domestic work more than twice a year, register. NAPIT if price and multi-trade cover matter most, NICEIC if brand recognition opens the doors you want opening. ELECSA and Stroma aren't options any more, whatever the comparison pages say.

Then treat certification like invoicing: same day, filed against the job, sent to the customer while you're still parked outside. The scheme fee buys you the right to self-certify. Doing it properly on the day is what makes it worth having.