(PUK I believe you stated you fall into this category?).
Correct John. I am not carrying out wiring work 5 or 6 days a week; it is just a part of my work. In fact in recent months I've been cutting back on it as I've been busy with other aspects of work (electronics, software, etc.). To be honest, I'm not sorry -- It's nice to have reduced the amount of attic crawling I have to do!
Looking at the costs that have been quoted for joining one of the approved schemes, it is simply not an option for me, nor I suspect for many other people in a similar position. There is no way I could justify the expense for the expected returns.
It's for similar reasons that I have never joined the NICEIC. 99% of the people I do wiring work for have never even heard of them anyway, so why bother? If I was doing electrical work as my primary occupation and wanted to branch out from mostly residential to commercial or wiring new housing estates, it would be another matter.
So to be "legal" the notification/inspection system is the only viable alternative. What is so typical of this government is the way that with only a month left to go, nobody has the slightest idea how the system will be implemented in many areas or what the costs will be.
There was actually a news item on the radio a couple of days ago announcing the changes and pointing out that much DIY electrical work would be subject to building controls from January. A couple of people have asked me about this, as they'd also just seen similar reports in the newspaper and wanted to know the details. This is the first that most members of the general public have heard about the changes.
The genereal attitude around here is "To h*** with them." Nobody I've spoken to who already does DIY work on their own house has any intention whatsoever of notifying the council about it from next month.