  
Registrars ReviewStrategic plan Last year I reported that the Board had introduced a strategic plan designed to establish the direction for electrical occupational licensing for a five-year period. The strategic changes the Board put in place were: - To focus on its regulatory functions
- To redesign its licensing and enforcement processes
- To target spending on communications to registered people, high-risk workers and industry partnerships for worker competency audits.
Since the introduction of the strategic plan considerable progress has been made in achieving the desired objective which was for the Board to have a business unit as efficient and effective as it can be, whether standalone or within the Ministry of Economic Development. The progress is summarised as follows: - In September 2002, the Ministry put a revised staffing structure in place to carry out the Board's operational functions
- The majority of the approximately 45,000 telephone calls the Board receives each year are now handled by the Ministry's southern call centre at Christchurch
- All renewals of practising licences are now undertaken for the Board by the Companies Office national processing centre at Auckland
- The co-ordinating of material for ELECTRON is done by the Ministry's Business Services Branch
- Financial reporting and processing of Board accounts is done by the Ministry's Business Services Branch
- Formal contracts have been negotiated with Training Providers throughout New Zealand for the provision of services for tuition courses and the conducting of examinations
- Revised procedures have been adopted for the assessing of complaints against registered people
- Revised procedures have been introduced for the issuing of provisional licences
- The offering of Board examinations in the United Kingdom and South Africa has ceased.
The Board During the year Brian Velvin resigned from the Board for business reasons and the Ministry acknowledges the contribution Brian made to the Board. In February 2003 the Board re-elected Murray Willis and Barrie Mason to the respective positions of Presiding and Deputy Presiding Members. Board meetings The Board met ten times during the year with the business sessions being held at Wellington and hearings into complaints at other centres as required. Online licensing Last year saw the introduction of the Board's online licensing facility with one of the main objectives being to foster e-business. Licensing online last year exceeded expectations and the system will continue to be available to those persons who prefer to do business by the electronic medium. This year the e-business aspect was enlarged and in May practising licence reminders were sent by email for the first time with an encouraging response rate. It is intended to carry out enhancements to the e-business facility as required and develop systems to enable the supply of Certificates of Compliance online. Dissemination of information The Board has continued with its strategy to provide all information that is relevant to the industry to all people that uplift practising licences. During the year practising licence holders have been provided with: - A copy of AS/NZS 3000:2000
- A CD containing nine companion Standards to AS/NZS 3000:2000
- A copy of the Board produced Electricity Regulations Compilation 2003
- Two easy reference "pocket mates" relating to testing required under AS/NZS 3000:2000 and AS/NZS 3760.
The Board considers that it has a responsibility to support the future of the industry and as such it has also provided the above material to all Trainees and Apprentices in the industry whose names are available to the Board. The Board has also increased the publication of ELECTRON to six times a year and now provides ELECTRON to all registered people. In an unprecedented step in the latter part of the year the Board wrote to all registered people advising of concerns that had arisen over the apparent inadequacy and of failure to carry out testing. Publicity During the 1997/98 financial year the Board and the Electrical Contractors Association of New Zealand combined resources to conduct the first stage of a publicity campaign which introduced Electrical Safety Certificates and re-emphasised the need for Certificates of Compliance. This year the second stage of the campaign was finalised with the distribution to households of over 300,000 fridge magnets bearing practising licence and work guarantee messages. Board members availability During the year the Board hosted two industry meetings and these meetings were well attended by registered people. The Board considers the meetings to be a success and intends to continue holding industry meetings in the forthcoming year. Conferences The Board was represented and provided input into the annual conferences of the New Zealand Electrical Institute, the Appliance and Electronic Industry Association and the Electrical Contractors Association of New Zealand. Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board Agreement in principle has been reached with the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board for the developing of mechanisms which will enable both Boards to work together in areas of commonality such as registration/licensing and the managing of complaints. Assessing and managing complaints During the year the Electrical Workers Licensing Group introduced new Standing Orders for Complaints Assessment Committees. The Group also reorganised the management of the complaints process and the Board acknowledges the benefits that have been derived from these initiatives. Legislation, regulation and codes of practice development The Board has continued to be involved in legislative and regulatory development with the EnergySafe legislative programme and amendments to the electricity regulations. The Board has also put considerable resource into the development of Codes of Practice and the PowerSafe industry-planning project. Competency audits The Board has proceeded with the previously published objective to put its competency audit resources into those people who are considered to be high risk. To achieve this the Board has carried out telephone audits of six thousand registered people who have not uplifted a practising licence. The Board also recognises that the previous system of audit inspections is important and five hundred audit inspections were carried out this year. It is the Board's intention to continue to carry out telephone audits and audit inspections in the future as part of the competency based regime. Investigation of people working in contravention of the Act The Board has received substantial feedback on the question of how investigations and prosecutions against persons working in contravention of the licensing requirements of the Act have been conducted. As a result the Board and the Ministry have put more resources into this area and results of investigations will be published in ELECTRON. Guidelines for the supervision of people carrying out electrical work were completed during the year and these have received positive feedback from the industry. The guidelines are available on the Board's website. Complaints The Registrar received fifty-six new complaints during the
year bringing the number of complaints being considered to ninety-one. Eighty-one of the complaints were assessed by Complaints Assessment Committees and of those fifty-three were referred to the Board for hearing. Seventy-five of the assessments were completed within twenty-five weeks. Of the complaints referred to the Board thirty-two hearings were held resulting in twenty-six practitioners being found guilty of a disciplinary offence. Twenty of the Board hearings were held within twenty-five weeks. A decade on It was in 1993 that the Electrical Workers Registration Board held its first meeting and consolidated many of the functions carried out by the previous Electrical Registration Board. Many aspects have changed considerably since 1993 and it is worthy to note that the Board has very successfully operated in a self-funded mode for the decade. Costs have continued to be lowered and there are now considerable "value added" functions undertaken on behalf of people who support the Board's practising licence requirements. The manner in which complaints are handled has also undergone notable change over the years as has the auditing of electrical workers and the licensing process in general. While it is satisfactory to look back at what has been over the last decade it is also important to acknowledge the challenges ahead. The EnergySafe legislative programme will bring changes to the electrical licensing regime and the Board will be at the centre of the changes. The Board looks forward to the challenges presented and will ensure that all registered people are kept well informed of proposed changes and final decisions. John Sickels, Registrar
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