coming up on this week's news a court hands a landlord a mega fine of £10,000 over a missing  EICR electrical contractors slam the standard of job applicants and the robots are coming  for your job in a trial their performance is said to have exceeded all expectations welcome  to electrical news weekly in association with Solar Trade Sales your easy One-Stop shop for  all things solar whether you're listening in the van on site or down at the wholesale counter I'm  Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the  trouble and if you think you spotted the two words that I've been challenged to slip into  this week's show comment with them below for the chance to win a prize although honesty compels me  to tell you that the second word is more of a phrase this week the challenge word committee  clearly haven't recovered from their all-inclusive summer holiday yet one of the biggest fines ever  for a missing EICR has been handed down by a court on the south coast a Hastings landlord was fined  £10,000 after failing to provide a satisfactory certificate to his Borough Council it's a legal  requirement to show the report if a local Authority asks for it industry sources say  the five figure fine shows that the authorities are starting to get tough over electrical safety  an appeal by the landlord to the property section of the first tier tribunal was struck out earlier  for failing to comply with directions given by the tribunal Hastings lead counsellor for  housing Glenn Haffenden says that regular And Timely checks of the electrics in properties is  an important safeguard for occupiers as faults may not always be visible he says his team will  work with property owners to become comp employ but if there's no engagement then the council  won't hesitate to take enforcement action the sum of the fine will inevitably be compared  with the same amount that was levied last month against Dunngannon based Swift control services  limited that Contracting firm was found to be partially responsible for the death of a Teenage  electrical Apprentice 18-year-old Adam Newall was electrocuted after coming into contact with  a live circuit on a new build site in Moneymore in Northern Island in 2021 The Firm which received  the £10,000 penalty at Derry Crown Court had earlier pleaded guilty to a single health  and safety offence in other news electrical contracting firms have this week slammed the  quality of those applying for installer vacancies of 125 businesses responding to a survey almost  half said that the applicants consistently lack sufficient knowledge or the skills to do the job  they also agree that pay expectations are way too high among job Seekers one respondent said  that applicants are not as skilled as they think they are and in some cases they are nowhere near  where they should be another said that young people coming into the trade struggle to cope  with the academics of the electrical courses and consequently leave reacting to the results of the  poll the electrical contractors associations Andrew Eldred has called on the government to  work closely with the industry to close the huge skills Gap he also said that ministers  must listen to electricians themselves about what needs to be done could the skills Gap be filled  by robots? that was the question that researchers set out to answer in a major real world experiment  in Denmark the country is facing a shortfall of 6,700 electricians and a third of Contracting  firms regularly turn down work due to shortages of installers it thinks automation could be the  answer the electrical employers body and the Trade union teamed up to organise the trial the  idea is to free electricians from the heaviest most monotonous and repetitive tasks Engineers  tested the machines on 50 routine electrical installation and maintenance tasks the result  says robot technician Mikkel Viager was far more significant than the team had dared to Hope in  fact 13 of the tasks were identified as suitable for the Bots these included cable pulling behind  ceilings and walls hole drilling for electrical installations and channel cutting for wiring the  robots were particularly good at measuring and marking up the locations of sockets and conduit  they use a 3D scanner to read the room and then plot the installations directly from the technical  drawing onto walls floors and ceilings some robots can even print the drawing directly onto the floor  other jobs that they can help with are overhead work wire stripping and vacuum cleaning Maria  Shard Burnson from the employers body Tech Technic said the study showed enormous potential she says  that it shows that automation could help ensure that a company can say yes to orders that they  would otherwise have to decline due to staff shortages and it debunks the myth that robots  are taking jobs from people a further Advantage is that unlike some electricians the robots are  very demure very mindful in the meantime human electricians will have to keep the show on the  road which in turn means a healthy market for Tools and PPE but now an industry warning has  gone out over the popular shopping website and Gordon's personal face favourite Temu  a Channel 4 probe into the Chinese platform has revealed that Safety products for sale had fake  safety certificates and were unfit for purpose in the dispatch's documentary reporter Ellie  Flynn reveals that some equipment advertised on the platform doesn't perform as advertised and  falsely claims to have safety certificates one notable instance involved two pairs of  pliers being sold as having electrical insulation properties that were advertised as being certified  by VDE the established electrical product tester and certifier however VDE's Hendrik Schafer  confirmed that the tools had not been checked by The Institute Flynn discovered that the product  listings featured altered photos of genuine safety certificates with the name of the t-u merchant  superimposed over the original certificate holder name Schafer explained that if the certification  is not correct then the insulation of the tools may not work and the result could be an electric  shock or in the worst case it could lead to death the British safety industry Federation  says that it has long warned about the widespread availability of substandard PPE and safety kit in  its own investigations the the organisation found that a staggering 79% of PPE items sourced from  non-member vendors including Online Marketplace and High Street retailers failed to meet basic  safety standards for example safety glasses from a High Street retailer failed impact resistance  tests and lacked Essential Safety documentation despite the retailers assurances that this would  be addressed the glasses remained on sale for over two months after the failure was identified  for its part Temu told dispatches that it doesn't allow forgeries and will take action against any  any sellers involved if such cases are found another product safety probe This Time by the  electrical safety first charity has discovered that all but one of 26 outdoor electrical products  tested over a year- long period posed a risk of electric shock even worse 46% of those tested  had both a risk of fire and electric shock the goods include outdoor lights electric barbecues  and water heaters bought on temu eBay Amazon and wish a common problem was substandard plugs and  fake fuses others failed to prevent water Ingress which meant people were exposed to the risk of  electric shock when a device got wet this included Goods such as outdoor heaters and lights which  are often left outside one water immersion heater which could be used for paddling pools caught fire  when not submerged the charity said that's going to ruin your afternoon of gumdrops in the garden  with Grandad isn't it electrical safety first boss Leslie Rud said that the Persistence of dangerous  products on online marketplaces points to a major problem that urgently needs addressing she is  calling for a total overhaul of product safety laws still on electrical safety we've teamed  up with tis again for the annual Safe4September campaign this is an initiative to highlight the  importance of isolating circuits during testing and inspection we're really passionate about the  use of dedicated safe isolation kits which have all the necessary tools to check that a circuit is  dead label it as isolated and lock it to prevent someone else from turning it on accidentally the  good news is we're holding a prize draw for three tis safe isolation kits exclusively for viewers  who have completed the free CPD training module if if you haven't done yet and needless to say  we recommend that you do check out the link for the CPD and lots of other resources in the show  notes you can also take a copy of your eFIXX safe isolation CPD certificate along to your  local wholesaler for an additional 10% off the tis kit much like the man who went to the  doctor because he couldn't say his Fs or thes you can't say fairer than that and our usual reminder  that we're in the market for your stories your projects and your recommendations as we'd like  to share them with the wider eFIXX community in September we're focusing on Commercial Lighting  tools and workwear and of course the safe for September campaign send us pictures of your  installs or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier now  just before we get to your favourite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge words  and winners we want to thank our premium Partners we couldn't make the news without you first up  it's the people who've created the Swiss army knife of solar inverters along with all weather  batteries very much the Boy Scouts of the solar industry it's Sunsynk up next they're resolving  ventilation problems one property at a time offering a simplistic ventilation design service  and high quality products made right here in the UK breathing fresh air into your home  it's envirovent next they the brand that Pride themselves on keeping people close to what's  important with the world's most recognisable doorbell chime it's ring and do you want a no  fuss lighting Solution that's packed with value then try the Ecolink range from signify combining  value for money with top-end signify quality now a business that will literally bend over backwards  to give you first class service on the trade only supply of signal reception and distribution custom  in install home automation and security products for all residential and Commercial projects it's  Alltrade if you want to pump up the jam and join the home heating Revolution then it's got to be  heat pumps from Daikin the best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel the home  of EV Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality products it's Doncaster cables with an incredible  range of equipment from EV charge points through industrial sockets and switches to kit  for explosive areas plus they supplied gear for a Campari factory so they'll always have a place in  my heart it's Scame big thanks to all we really appreciate your ongoing support for the news if  you think you know the words that I've smuggled into Today's Show pop your guess into the comments  we'll take all the correct guesses and select one at random to be the winner of an eFIXX goodie bag  prize answers submitted after about lunchtime on the Thursday after release will not be entered  into the draw now let's reveal the winners of last week's challenge word competition the words were  karetta and marigolds and the winner from the last episode is Ian Williams 2239 so well done  to you Ian especially as you got the spelling abs absolutely spot on make sure you click the get  involved Link in the show notes to claim your prize thanks for listening to this episode of  electrical news weekly in association with solar trade sales your easy One-Stop shop for all things  solar make sure you subscribe to receive the next update thanks for listening and until next time  have a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm