  
2. Technical and General Question CornerQ Why does the Board take action against the electricians shown on television when the electricians have been trapped into doing work? A Entrapment generally occurs where the actions of a witness progress to a point where the witness is the initiator of offences by another person when the other person would not otherwise have been a offender. It is considered that the actions of the television programmes producers merely provide an opportunity for an electrical worker to carry out prescribed electrical work in a non-compliant manner. The Board has considered many cases as a result of electrical workers being depicted carrying out non-compliant work on television. In all of the cases the television programme only provided the opportunity for non-compliant work to be carried out. The producers of the programme did not actively encourage any non-complaint work therefore there was no entrapment. The situation would be different if the programme producers actively encouraged electrical workers to carry out work in a non-compliant manner. Q You recently sent out supervision guidelines and would you please tell me why you have reissued the guidelines and what are the main changes? A The Board and the Electrical Workers Licensing Group continue to be made aware of electrical incidents involving trainees/apprentices. The Board and the Group will continue to make every effort to ensure the industry is well aware of its responsibilities and obligations in regard to supervision and as such the material will continue to be updated as and when required. The main changes to the guidelines are that:
- The terms "direct supervision" and "general supervision" have been introduced and definitions of the terms are made clear.
- Guidelines for site assessment have been introduced.
- Employer, supervisor of electrical work and trainee responsibilities have been introduced.
- A section on the assessment of trainees/apprentices has been introduced.
In addition, the development of a proposed Code of Practice for the supervision of trainees has been instituted. A notice on the proposal is in this issue of ELECTRON. Q Now that the Board has an agreement with Site Safe does it now mean that all people have to do the tuition course conducted by the Electrical Training Company? A The course which ETCO is to conduct was developed by Site Safe and ETCO to satisfy the overall objection for practising licences and the requirements for SiteSafe passports for electrical workers in the construction industry. The Board has accepted the course as meeting the practicing licence issuing requirements. The course enables electrical workers in the construction industry to do one course to meet both Board and Site Safe requirements. All people do not have to do the course.
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