Let me begin by looking at the background to the modern Health and Safety Regulations and the electricity supply and wiring regulations.

Electricity generation as we know it today began when Michael Faraday conducted the famous ring experiment in 1831. This experiment, together with many other experiments of the time, made it possible for Lord Kelvin and Sebastian de Ferranti to patent in 1882 the designs for an electrical machine called the Ferranti Thompson dynamo, which enabled the generation of electricity on a commercial scale.

In 1887 the London Electric Supply Corporation was formed with Ferranti as chief engineer. This was one of many privately owned electricity generating stations supplying the electrical needs of the UK. As the demand for electricity grew, more privately owned generating stations were built until eventually the government realized that electricity was a national asset which would benefit from nationalization.

In 1926 the Electricity Supply Act placed the responsibility for generation in the hands of the Central Electricity Board. In England and Wales the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) had the responsibility for the generation and transmission of electricity on the Supergrid. In Scotland, generation was the joint responsibility of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electricity Board and the South of Scotland Electricity Board. In Northern Ireland electricity generation was the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Electricity Service.

In 1988 Cecil Parkinson, the Secretary of State for Energy in the Conservative government, proposed the denationalization of the electricity supply industry; this became...