On 4 June at the ASLEC HEMSA Technical Seminar held in Oxford, Gareth Pritchard, the Chief Executive of ASLEC announced the re-naming of the Highway Electrical Industry Scheme for the Registration of Authorised Persons as the Highway Electrical Registration Scheme - HERS. In conjunction with this change of name, a new logo was introduced that Gareth Pritchard said "will provide additional visible evidence of competence and quality. The logo will be able to be used by registered Organisations that meet all of the scheme rules including having at least 75% of their registrable employees registered with HERS and issued with an ECS registration card. In addition the Organisations must not be in default of any Audit Action Plans."

A full set of rules for the use of the logo together with an application form are in the latest HERS Handbook available from the HEA web-site.

ASLEC Chairman Graham Cartledge highlighted the quality credentials of the new logo by stating "Organisations that have less than 75% of their registrable employees registered will still be able to register but will not be able to make use of the HERS logo on their letter heading. The logo is therefore not just an indicator of registration but one that shows that the user meets the top level of registration thereby providing a quality mark and Client reassurance."

During the seminar Gareth Pritchard explained that Clients had an important role to play in supporting the scheme by ensuring that all those involved in carrying out the installation or maintenance of Highway Electrical works are competent and appropriately trained and skilled, whether or not they are directly employed. In addition confirmation of compliance with the Contract Specification in respect of the installation or maintenance works, by ensuring that the quality management system certficate issuer is accredited by UKAS or equivalent and that specific reference is made to relavant Sector Schemes on certificates. Where the Client is not requiring ISO9001 accreditation, then any organisations employing persons to carry out works on site should be registered to HERS together with the individuals concerned.

HERS has a requirement for two compliance audits, one by the ISO accreditation body (where appropriate) on an annual basis and a Technical Audit every two years by the administrator, ASLEC. Despite this level of audit, Clients are encouraged to support this process either directly or via the agents and individuals they employ, by ensuring that the requirements of HERS are complied with by:

• Ensuring that sub-contractors employed directly or indirectly, are registered to the Sector Scheme and / or the Highway Electrical Registration Scheme
• Supervisory staff carry out spot checks of registration cards
• Clients are encouraged to check that potential bidders for a contract meet the requirements of the scheme by establishing the existence of organisational certificates, individual HERS portfolios and third party audit records. This will also help the smooth transition from one contractor to another in respect of the TUPE Regulations.

Compliance with the Highway Electrical Registration Scheme called up by this Sector Scheme should meet most of the organisational and individual core competence criteria as set out in the Approved Code of Practice to the CDM Regulations 2007, and enable clients and other duty holders to discharge their responsibilities in this respect. The Highway Electrical Registration Scheme called up by this Sector Scheme will also assist organisations in the event of any action taken under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, particularly in respect to section 8 - factors for jury - which states that any jury may consider the extent to which the evidence shows that there were attitudes, policies, systems or accepted practices within the organisation that were likely to have encouraged any such failure of a relevant duty of care or to have produced tolerance of it.

The Sector Scheme was originally conceived as a document for use by Customers  and / or Clients to specify the minimum standards for quality, training and competence of Organisations used by them to carry out works. The Sector Scheme Advisory Committee has completed the work to consider how best the principles of operator competency contained in the Sector Scheme can be adapted for people employed by the Customer and / or Client for the Public Lighting, Traffic Signs and Traffic Signals sectors. The key principle is that if someone is accessing highway electrical equipment to carry work on it, then they and their organisation should meet the requirements of NHSS 8 9B and 10 and / or the Highway Electrical Registration Scheme.

Some Organisations, including local authority direct services organisations, that carry out works included in the scope of this sector scheme, may use other sections of their Organisation to undertake some of the works. Such sections of Organisations may have followed a CSCS route to show competency. The Sector Scheme provides exemptions for such cases where organisations are carrying out excavation and reinstatement works (including the installation of ducts) only.

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Editorial from HEN

The Highway Electrical Industry and the Credit Crunch

It is very difficult to pick up a newspaper or listen to a news bulletin without being told of the latest impact of the credit crunch or that oil has hit a new high. Stories of doom and gloom abound with the housing market hitting most of the headlines. But what of our industry? What impact will these global changes have on the Highway Electrical Industry?

Commodity prices and especially oil are on their way up. In the last 12 months oil has increased by 100% with predictions of a further increase of 40% by the year end. How these price changes will be reflected in electricity charges remains to be seen but there is no doubt that we will be in for significant increases in the not too distant future. This will be bad news for lighting authorities who have been struggling for a number of years with previous electricity price increases. A cut back in maintenance and construction budgets will be inevitable with a consequential spin off affecting manufacturers, suppliers and contractors.

Petrol and especially diesel prices are hitting contractors hard, especially where contracts prevent them from claiming back the real increases through a fair price fluctuation clause. Steel prices are still volatile and plastics which are derived from oil are bound to increase.

A blow to tax revenues from the credit crunch is set to send the Chancellor plunging £16 billion or more deeper into the red over the next two years than he has planned according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research aggravating the acute financial headache already facing the Chancellor Alistair Darling. With a general election possible as soon as next year, the Chancellor is already boxed in and a further slide into the red would leave him with little scope for pre-election giveaways or for extra tax and spending measures to help to stave off a recession.

Under such pressure, the Government has admitted that public expenditure plans could be thwarted because of the global credit crunch. It has now commissioned a project to consider the impact of tighter credit terms and uncertainty in the housing market on regeneration projects.

So what will be the impact on PFI credits for street lighting? Under intense pressure the Government may decide to cut back on its PFI commitments. This is unlikely to happen but given the current situation anything could be on the table for consideration. Banks are also likely to be considering their position regarding PFIs. Accountants Ernst and Young have reported that the crunch has already pushed PFI credit costs up and banks are looking for other banking partners to share the risks involved in any individual project. However banks are bound to see government backed projects as preferable investments compared to residential mortgages as long as the government is in a position to continue with the PFI credits.

We are living in a new economic environment where the traditional norms no longer apply. Economic strength has moved to the far east and other strong emerging economies. We must prepare ourselves for changing times ahead.

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